Argentine writer and physicist (1911?2011)
Ernesto Sabato
(June 24, 1911 ? April 30, 2011) was an Argentine
novelist
,
essayist
,
painter
, and
physicist
. According to the
BBC
he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary world throughout Latin America".
[2]
Upon his death
El Pais
dubbed him the "last classic writer in Argentine literature".
[3]
Sabato was distinguished by his bald
pate
and brush moustache and wore tinted spectacles and open-necked shirts.
[4]
He was born in Rojas, a small town in
Buenos Aires Province
. Sabato began his studies at the
Colegio Nacional de La Plata
. He then studied
physics
at the
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
, where he earned a PhD. He then attended the
Sorbonne
in Paris and worked at the
Curie Institute
. After
World War II
, he lost interest in science and started writing.
Sabato's oeuvre includes three novels:
El Tunel
(1948),
Sobre heroes y tumbas
(1961) and
Abaddon el exterminador
(1974). The first of these received critical acclaim upon its publication from, among others, fellow writers
Albert Camus
and
Thomas Mann
.
[1]
The second is regarded as his masterpiece, though he nearly burnt it like many of his other works.
[2]
Sabato's essays cover topics as diverse as
metaphysics
, politics and
tango
.
[2]
His writings led him to receive many international prizes, including the
Miguel de Cervantes Prize
(Spain), the
Legion of Honour
(France), the
Jerusalem Prize
(Israel), and the
Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger
(France).
[1]
At the request of President
Raul Alfonsin
, he presided over the
CONADEP
Commission that investigated the fate of those who suffered
forced disappearance
during the
Dirty War
of the 1970s. The result of these findings was published in 1984, bearing the title
Nunca Mas
(
Never Again
).
Biography
[
edit
]
Early years
[
edit
]
Ernesto Sabato was born in
Rojas
,
Buenos Aires Province
, son of Francesco Sabato and Giovanna Maria Ferrari, Italian immigrants from
Calabria
. His father was from
Fuscaldo
, and his mother was an
Arbereshe
(
Albanian
minority in Italy) from
San Martino di Finita
.
[5]
He was the tenth of a total of 11 children. Being born after his ninth brother's death, he carried on his name "Ernesto".
[6]
In 1924 he finished primary school in Rojas and settled in the city of
La Plata
for his secondary education at the Colegio Nacional de La Plata. There he met professor
Pedro Henriquez Urena
, an early inspiration for his writing career.
[7]
In 1929 he started college, attending the School of Physics and Mathematics at the
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
.
He was an active member in the
Reforma Universitaria
movement,
[8]
founding "Insurrexit Group" in 1933 ? of communist ideals ? together with Hector P. Agosti, Angel Hurtado de Mendoza and Paulino Gonzalez Alberdi, among others.
[9]
In 1933 he was elected Secretario General of the
Federacion Juvenil Comunista
(Communist Youth Federation).
[10]
While attending a lecture about
Marxism
he met Matilde Kusminsky Richter, aged 17, who would leave her parents' house to live with Sabato.
[11]
In 1934 he started to doubt Communism and
Joseph Stalin
's regime. The
Communist Party of Argentina
, which had noted this, sent him to the
International Lenin School
for two years. According to Sabato, "it was a place where either you recovered or ended up in a
gulag
or
psychiatric hospital
".
[12]
Before arriving at Moscow, he traveled to
Brussels
as a delegate from the Communist Party of Argentina at the "Congress against Fascism and the War". Once there, fearing not coming back from Moscow, he left the congress to escape to Paris.
[12]
It was there where he wrote his first novel:
La Fuente Muda
, which remains unpublished.
[10]
[12]
Once back in
Buenos Aires
, in 1936, he married Matilde Kusminsky Richter.
His years as a scientist
[
edit
]
In 1938 he obtained his PhD in
physics
from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Thanks to
Bernardo Houssay
, he was granted a research fellowship in
atomic radiation
at the
Curie Institute
in Paris.
[10]
On May 25, 1938 Jorge Federico Sabato, his first son, was born. While in France he made contact with the
surrealist movement
, studying the works of
Oscar Dominguez
,
Benjamin Peret
,
Roberto Matta Echaurren
and
Esteban Frances
among others. This would have a deep influence on his future writing.
[13]
During that time of antagonisms, I buried myself with
electrometers
and
graduated cylinders
during the morning and spent the nights in bars, with the delirious surrealists. At the Dome and in the Deux Magots, inebriated with those
heralds
of
chaos
and excess, we used to spend many hours creating
exquisite cadavers
.
In 1939 he transferred to the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. Once in 1940 he came back to Argentina intent on leaving physics behind. However, serving an obligation to those responsible for his fellowship Sabato started teaching at the
Universidad de La Plata
for Engineering admission, and
relativity
and
quantum mechanics
for post graduate degrees. In 1943, due to an "existential crisis", he left science for good to become a full-time writer and painter.
[12]
At the Curie Institute, one of the highest goals for a physicist, I found myself empty. Beaten up by disbelief, I kept going because of inertia, which my soul rejected.
In 1945, his second son,
Mario Sabato
was born.
Writing career
[
edit
]
In 1941, Sabato published his first literary work, an article about
La invencion de Morel
by
Adolfo Bioy Casares
, in the magazine
Teseo
from
La Plata
. Also, in concert with
Pedro Henriquez Urena
, he published a collaboration in the renowned
Sur
magazine.
In 1942, working for
Sur
magazine reviewing books, he was put in charge of the "Calendario" section and participated in "Desagravio a
Borges
" in
Sur
nº 94. He also published articles in
La Nacion
and a translation of
The Birth and Death of the Sun
by
George Gamow
. The following year he published a translation of
The ABC of Relativity
by
Bertrand Russell
.
In 1945, his first book,
Uno y el Universo
, a series of essays criticizing the apparent moral neutrality of science and warning about dehumanization processes in technological societies, was published; with time he would turn towards a
libertarian
and
humanist
standing. That same year he was awarded a prize by the municipality of
Buenos Aires
for his book and the honor wand of the Sociedad Argentina de Escritores.
In 1948, after being rejected by several Buenos Aires editors, Sabato published in
Sur
his first novel,
El tunel
, a
psychological novel
narrated in the first person. Framed in
existentialism
, it was met with enthusiastic reviews by
Albert Camus
, who had
Gallimard
publish a French translation. It has been further translated to more than 10 languages.
[14]
Others who enjoyed the book included
Thomas Mann
.
[1]
[4]
France's literary industry named Sabato's book
Abaddon, el Exterminador
(
The Angel of Darkness
) the best foreign book of 1976.
[1]
In 1998 Sabato's wife died.
[15]
In 1999 he acquired Italian citizenship in addition to his original Argentine nationality.
[16]
Sabato died in
Santos Lugares
on April 30, 2011, two months short of his 100th birthday.
[17]
[18]
His death was the result of
bronchitis
, according to his companion and collaborator Elvira Gonzalez Fraga.
[15]
The Spanish newspaper
El Mundo
said he had been "the last surviving Argentine writer with a capital W".
[3]
Works
[
edit
]
Novels
[
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]
Essays
[
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]
- 1945:
Uno y el Universo
(
One and the Universe
)
- 1951:
Hombres y engranajes
(Man and Mechanism)
- 1953:
Heterodoxia
(
Heterodoxy
)
- 1956:
El caso Sabato. Torturas y libertad de prensa. Carta abierta al General Aramburu
(
The Sabato Case. Tortures and Liberty of Press. Open Letter to General Aramburu
)
- 1956:
El otro rostro del peronismo
(
The Other Face of Peronism
)
- 1963:
El escritor y sus fantasmas
(Translated by Asa Zatz in 1990 as
The Writer in the Catastrophe of our Time
.)
- 1963:
Tango, discusion y clave
(
Tango: Discussion and Key
)
- 1967:
Significado de Pedro Henriquez Urena
(
Significance of Pedro Henriquez Urena
)
- 1968:
Tres aproximaciones a la literatura de nuestro tiempo: Robbe-Grillet, Borges, Sartre
(
Three Approximations to the Literature of our Time:
Robbe-Grillet
,
Borges
,
Sartre
)
- 1973:
La cultura en la encrucijada nacional
(
Culture in the National Crossroads
)
- 1976:
Dialogos con Jorge Luis Borges
(
Dialogues with Jorge Luis Borges
) (Edited by Orlando Barone)
- 1979:
Apologias y rechazos
(
Apologies and Rebuttals
)
- 1979:
Los libros y su mision en la liberacion e integracion de la America Latina
(
Books and their Mission in the Liberation and Integration of Latin America
)
- 1988:
Entre la letra y la sangre. Conversaciones con Carlos Catania
(
Between Letter and Blood. Conversations with Carlos Catania
)
- 1998:
Antes del fin
(
Before the End
)
- Antes del fin
is an autobiography in which he recounts his life and the influences on his political and ethical opinions. Sabato discusses the ill effects of globalization and the exalting of rationalism and materialism. There are also several tender passages about his school experiences in the 1920s (when there was more
idealism
, Sabato says), about his deceased wife and son, Matilde and Jorge, and about the struggling workers he meets on the streets of
Buenos Aires
.
- 2000:
La resistencia
(The Resistance)
- 2004:
Espana en los diarios de mi vejez
(
Spain in the Diaries of my Old Age
)
Others
[
edit
]
Tribute
[
edit
]
On 24 June 2019, on Sabato's 108th birthday, he was honored with a
Google Doodle
.
[19]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Zadunaisky, Daniel; Rey, Debora (April 30, 2011).
"Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato, who led probe of dirty war crimes, dies at 99"
.
Canadian Press
. Retrieved
April 30,
2011
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato dies, age 99"
.
BBC News
.
BBC
. April 30, 2011
. Retrieved
April 30,
2011
.
- ^
a
b
"On the death of Ernesto Sabato: World reactions"
.
Buenos Aires Herald
. April 30, 2011
. Retrieved
April 30,
2011
.
- ^
a
b
"Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato dies at age 99"
.
Reuters
. April 30, 2011
. Retrieved
April 30,
2011
.
- ^
"Juana Maria Ferrari, de ascendencia italiana y albanesa. Francisco Sabato, de origen italiano"
[1]
Archived
June 28, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
a
b
c
Antes del fin
, Ernesto Sabato; Capitulo I,
ISBN
978-84-322-0766-2
- ^
Diario La Nacion: Evocan a Pedro Henriquez Urena, gran humanista dominicano
- ^
"Festejos por el aniversario de la Reforma Universitaria"
.
www.clarin.com
. January 11, 1998.
- ^
"El joven discipulo de Ponce"
. Archived from
the original
on March 21, 2008.
- ^
a
b
c
Biografia de Ernesto Sabato en Autores de Argentina.
Archived
February 15, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Homenaje de Matilde a Sabato.
Archived
March 17, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
a
b
c
d
Cronologia de Ernesto Sabato.
Archived
February 14, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
a
b
"Sabato y el Surrealismo por Daniel Vargas"
. Archived from
the original
on February 17, 2008.
- ^
Biografia de Ernesto Sabato en Solo Argentina
(in Spanish)
- ^
a
b
Barrionuevo, Alexei (May 1, 2011).
"Ernesto Sabato, Novelist and Argentina's Conscience, Dies at 99"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
"Il Messaggero"
. Archived from
the original
on September 30, 2011
. Retrieved
April 30,
2011
.
- ^
Murio Ernesto Sabato
Archived
October 25, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine
InfoBae, April 30, 2011
(in Spanish)
- ^
Murio Ernesto Sabato
Clarin
, April 30, 2011
(in Spanish)
- ^
"Ernesto Sabato's 108th Birthday"
.
Google
. June 24, 2019.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Bacarisse, Salvador (1980).
Abaddon el Exterminador: Sabato's Gnostic Eschatology
, in Contemporary Latin American Fiction, Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh 1980 (pp. 88?109).
- (in Spanish)
Bacarisse, Salvador (1983).
Poncho celeste, banda punzo: la dualidad historica argentina. Una interpretacion de Sobre heroes y tumbas de Ernesto Sabato
in Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, Madrid Enero-Marzo 1983 Numeros 391 393.
- Conde, David (1981).
Archetypal Patterns in Ernesto Sabato's
Sobre heroes y tumbas.
- Foster, David William (1975).
Currents in the Contemporary Argentine Novel: Arlt, Mallea, Sabato, and Cortazar
.
- Francis, Nathan Travis (1973).
Ernesto Sabato as a Literary Critic
.
- Oberhelman, Harley D. (1970).
Ernesto Sabato
.
- Petersen, John Fred (1963).
Ernesto Sabato: Essayist and Novelist
.
- Predmore, James R. (1977).
A Critical Study of the Novels of Ernesto Sabato
.
- Price Munn, Nancy Elaine (1975).
Ernesto Sabato: Theory and Practice of the Novel, 1945?1973
.
- (in Spanish)
Wainerman Gonilsky, Luis (1978 [1971]).
Sabato y el misterio de los ciegos
.
External links
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