Álvaro Mutis

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Álvaro Mutis

Born	25 August 1923 (1923-08-25) (age 84) Colombia
Occupation	Poet and novelist
Genres	Fiction

Álvaro Mutis Jaramillo (born August 25, 1923) is a Colombian poet, novelist, and essayist.^[1] Before returning to Colombia in his adolescence, he lived in Brussels, where his father held a post as a diplomat. He has lived in Mexico City since 1956.

Though critically acclaimed worldwide and translated into many languages, his works are most widely read in Latin America and Europe. Mutis is best known for his novellas featuring Maqroll el Gaviero (Maqroll the Lookout), a wandering sailor and adventurer. These have been gathered into a compendium, The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll (ISBN 0940322919, translated into English by Edith Grossman). Typical praise by Mutis' contemporaries includes: "An amazing adventure full of poetry, a narrative craft and a subtle philosophical content make of the Maqroll saga a major work of the literature written in Spanish." ^[2]

His poetry was first published in 1948, his first short stories in 1978, but it was his first novel featuring Maqroll, La nieve del Almirante (The Snow of the Admiral), published in 1986, that first gained him popular and critical acclaim. He has received many literary awards, including the Prix Médicis (France, 1989), Premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Letras (Spain, 1997), Premio Miguel de Cervantes (Spain, 2001), and the Neustadt Prize for Literature (United States, 2002).

Mutis has combined his career as a writer of poetry and prose with a diverse set of non-literary occupations. Like his protagonist Maqroll, Mutis traveled widely in his professional roles including five years as Standard Oil's public relations director, and over 20 years as sales manager for Twentieth Century Fox and Columbia Pictures in their Latin American television divisions. Latin Americans first became familiar with his voice when he did the narration for the Spanish-language television version of The Untouchables.

Mutis is a contemporary of other esteemed Latin American writers, notably Gabriel García Márquez and the late Octavio Paz, who championed his early poetry. In the 1950s, Mutis spent 15 months in a Mexican prison due to his handling of money intended for charitable use by Standard Oil. His experience in prison had a lasting influence on his life and work, and is chronicled in the book Diario de Lecumberri.

[edit] Further Reading

English:

Modern Spanish American poets (Dictionary of literary biography) / María Antonia Salgado., 2003
Latin American writers. Supplement I / Carlos A Solé., 2002
Studies in honor of Myron Lichtblau / Fernando Burgos., 2000

Spanish:

Consuelo Hernández. ÁLVARO MUTIS: UNA ESTÉTICA DEL DETERIORO. Caracas: Monte Ávila Editores, 1997

Consuelo Hernández. "Razón del extraviado: Mutis entre dos mundos." Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos. No. 523. Madrid.

Consuelo Hernández. "Los amores de Maqroll en el anverso social." Álvaro Mutis. Ediciones de Cultura Hispánica. Semana del Autor. Madrid: Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana, 1993. p. 67-78.

Consuelo Hernández. "Propuesta y respuesta de Maqroll." Folios. No.24. Caracas: Monte Ávila Editores Latinoamericana. p. 35-39.

Consuelo Hernández. "Del poema narrativo a la novela poética." Tradición y actualidad de la literatura iberoamericana. P. Bacarisse. Editor. Actas del XXX Congreso del Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana. Tomo I. University of Pittsburgh. p. 101-115.

Diego Valverde Villena. "Hechos de armas bajo la bandera de Álvaro Mutis", Letras Libres, 10, julio 2002, pp. 46-48.

Diego Valverde Villena. "Mujeres de mirada fija y lento paso: el eterno femenino en la obra de Álvaro Mutis", Excelsior (Mexico), june 7th, 2002.

Diego Valverde Villena. "A los que van por mar: anotaciones al pliego de historia de Maqroll el Gaviero", Nueva Revista, 80, 2002, pp. 124-128.

Diego Valverde Villena. "Don Álvaro ante el rey, tantos años después", Clarín, 32, 2001, pp. 3-8.

Lecturas convergentes / J G Cobo Borda., 2006
Mirada anacrónica y resistencia : la obra de Alvaro Mutis / María del Carmen Porras., 2006
Ser filosófico y ser poético en la obra de Alvaro Mutis / Gabriel Mantilla Chaparro., 2004
Las huellas de lo trascendental : la obra de Alvaro Mutis / William L Siemens., 2002
La valoración nihilista del mundo en Álvaro Mutis / Clímaco Pérez Camargo., 2002
Mujer, erotismo, mito, utopía y héroe contemporáneo en Alvaro Mutis / Gina Ponce de León., 2002
Caminos y encuentros de Maqroll el Gaviero : escritos de y sobre Alvaro Mutis / Javier Ruiz-Portella., 2001
Celebraciones y otros fantasmas : una biografía intelectual de Alvaro Mutis / Eduardo García Aguilar., 2000
Las cifras del azar : una lectura psicoanalítica de la obra de Alvaro Mutis / Belén del Rocío Moreno., 1998
Alvaro Mutis : la nueva geografía de la novela / Dora Cajías., 1997
De MUTIS a Mutis : para una ilícita lectura crítica de Maqroll El Gaviero / Fabio Rodríguez Amaya., 1995
El reino que estaba para mí : conversaciones con Alvaro Mutis / Fernando Quiroz., 1993
Alvaro Mutis / Pedro Shimose., 1993
Alvaro Mutis / J G Cobo Borda., 1989
Tras las rutas de Maqroll el Gaviero : 1981-1988 / Santiago Mutis Durán., 1988

[edit] References

^ Leslie Bethell (1984). The Cambridge History of Latin America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521495946.
^ Ruy Sánchez, Alberto. 'Álvaro Mutis y sus rituales góticos de Tierra Caliente' in Cuatro escritores rituales. Conaculta, 2000. ISBN 970-18-7269-X