Ricardo Güiraldes was an Argentine novelist and poet, one of the most significant Argentine writers of his era, particularly known for his 1926 novel Don Segundo Sombra, set amongst the gauchos.
Background
Ricardo Güiraldes was born on February 13, 1886 in Buenos Aires, Argentina in a wealthy family. From childhood he divided his life between Paris, Buenos Aires, and the family estancia (country estate), pursuing an existence not unlike that of many Argentines of his class.
Education
When Ricardo Güiraldes was one year old, he travelled with his family to Europe, living for four years in Paris near the Rue Saint-Claude. By the age of six, he spoke not only Spanish but French and German.
Güiraldes's childhood and youth were divided between the family ranch, La Porteña in San Antonio de Areco, and Buenos Aires. In San Antonio he came into contact with the world of the gauchos. He loved the country life, but suffered from asthma that sometimes limited his own physical activity, though he generally presented an image of physical vigor.
Ricardo Güiraldes was educated by several female teachers and, later, by a Mexican engineer, Lorenzo Ceballos, who recognized and encouraged his literary ambitions. He studied in various institutes and completed his bachillerato at the age of 16. Ricardo Güiraldes was not a brilliant student; at the Colegio Lacordaire, the Vertiz Institute and the Instituto Libre de Segunda Enseñanza, he studied both architecture and law, but never practiced either one. He did make several attempts at business, all unsuccessful.
Ricardo Güiraldes traveled to Europe in 1910 in the company of his friend Roberto Leviller, then travelled with another friend, his future brother-in-law Adán Deihl, with whom he visited Italy, Greece, Constantinople, Egypt, Japan, China, Russia, India, Ceylon, and Germany before settling in Paris, where (after his father decided he had had enough of paying the costs of his son's idleness) he stayed with the sculptor Alberto Lagos, and where he decided to become a writer.
Career
Despite that decision, Ricardo Güiraldes threw himself into the French capital's social whirl, practically abandoning his literary ambitions. But one day he unpacked some draft stories he had written about rural Argentina and set to work. He read the stories to friends, who encouraged him to publish them. Even the early drafts already showed a distinct, individual style.
Finally truly committed to literature, Ricardo Güiraldes returned to Buenos Aires in 1912, becoming part of the circle of Alejandro Bustillo. In 1913-1914, he published several stories in the magazine Caras y Caretas; in 1915, these and others were published as Cuentos de muerte y de sangre; earlier that year he had published a book of poetry, El cencerro de cristal.
At the end of 1916, the couple traveled to the Pacific Ocean, to Cuba, and to Jamaica, where Ricardo Güiraldes wrote a "theatrical caprice" called El reloj ("The clock", never published). These travels would eventually lead to his 1923 novel Xaimaca, but long before that, in 1917, came his first novel Raucho, followed in 1918 by a short novel Un idilio de estación ("A Season's Idyll") in Horacio Quiroga's magazine El cuento ilustrado.
In 1919, with his wife, Ricardo Güiraldes again traveled to Europe. In Paris he established contact with many French writers and frequented literary salons and bookstores; there, too, he began Don Segundo Sombra. He returned to Argentina, then went back to Europe in 1922, where besides returning to Paris he passed some time in Puerto de Pollensa, Majorca, where he rented a house. In this period he underwent an intellectual and spiritual change. He became interested in theosophy and Eastern philosophy, seeking spiritual peace; this is strongly reflected in his late poetry.
At the same time, Güiraldes's writing became more accepted in his native Buenos Aires, where he became a supporter of new avant-garde writers. Ricardo Güiraldes also co-founded the Frente Ứnico, opposed to pompierismo (the use of dry or pompous academic language in writing), and collaborated in the publication of the magazine Martín Fierro. After closing down the magazine, he focused on finishing Don Segundo Sombra, which he completed in March 1926.
In 1927, intending to head back to India because of his increasing interest in Hinduism, Ricardo Güiraldes traveled once more to France. He went first to Arcachon, but it developed that he was sick with Hodgkin's disease. He was brought to Paris by ambulance, was met there by his wife, and died in the house of his friend , the painter Alfredo González Garaño (1886-1969). Güiraldes's body was brought back to Buenos Aires and finally entombed in San Antonio de Areco.