Manuel Peyrou (May 23, 1902January 1, 1974) was an Argentine writer and journalist.

Life and work

Peyrou was born in

San Nicolás de los Arroyos San Nicolás de los Arroyos (usually shortened to ''San Nicolás'') is a city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the western shore of the Paraná River, from Rosario. It has about 133,000 inhabitants (). It is the administrative seat ...

in 1902. He enrolled at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...

and obtained a Law Degree in 1925, but never practiced law, instead working for a time for an

English Argentine English Argentines (also known as Anglo-Argentines) are citizens of Argentina or the children of Argentine citizens brought up in Argentina, who can claim ancestry originating in England. The English settlement in Argentina (the arrival of Eng ...

railway company A railway company is a company within the rail industry. It can be a manufacturing firm or an rail transport operations, operator. Some railway companies operate both the trains and the track, while, particularly in the European Union, operation ...

, and ultimately joining the editorial staff of ''

La Prensa ''La Prensa'' ("The Press") is a frequently used name for newspapers in the Spanish-speaking world. It may refer to: Argentina * ''La Prensa'' (Buenos Aires) * , a current publication of Caleta Olivia, Santa Cruz Bolivia * ''La Prensa'' (La Paz ...

'', then the country's second-most circulated daily. His short story, ''La noche incompleta'' (''The Unfinished Night'') was published by ''La Prensa'' in 1935, and Peyrou became an editor of the daily's respected literary supplement, eventually becoming the section's chief editor. He contributed to literary critic

Victoria Ocampo Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo (7 April 1890 – 27 January 1979) was an Argentine writer and intellectual. Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the literary magazine '' Sur'', she was also a writer and critic in he ...

's '' Sur'', and a close friend from his days at the university,

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

, later brought him on as chief

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outl ...

for ''Los Anales de Buenos Aires'', Borges'

literary review ''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by v ...

. ''La espada dormida'' (''The Sleeping Sword''), Peyrou's 1944

pulp fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Vin ...

work, was followed by a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

, ''El estruendo de las rosas'', in 1948, which earned him a Municipal Literary Prize; Peyrou's later works departed from the detective genre and were mainly realist narratives. A number, including ''Las leyes del juego'' (''The Rules of the Game'', 1959), ''El árbol de Judas'' (''The Judas Tree'', 1963), ''Marea de fervor'' (''Tide of Fervor'', 1967), and ''El hijo rechazado'' (''The Rejected Son'', 1969), were also acclaimed by critics. His short stories were published by ''Selecciónes'' (the Spanish-language edition of

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

) and by

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

publisher George Humuziadis, among others. His 1949 work, ''El estruendo de las rosas'', was translated into English by Donald A. Yates and published by

Herder Publishers Verlag Herder is a publishing company started by the Herders, a German family. The company focuses primarily on Catholic topics of ecclesiology, Christian mysticism, women's studies, and the development of younger Catholic theologians. History ...

in 1972 as ''Thunder of Roses: A Detective Novel''. Peyrou died in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

in 1974.

References

*Antonio Requeni. ''Boletín de la Academia Argentina de Letras. Manuel Peyrou (1902-1974)''. Volume LXVII, Nº 263-264. 1902 births 1974 deaths Argentine male writers Argentine journalists Male journalists University of Buenos Aires alumni Argentine people of French descent People from San Nicolás de los Arroyos 20th-century journalists {{Argentina-writer-stub