Book News: 1980 interview with Borges now in print

An Interview with Borges / Una entrevista a Borges 

BY FABIAN SPAGNOLI AND JORGE LUIS BORGES

Introduction by Carlo Alberto Petruzzi, translation by Jillian Tomm

 

Adolf Hoffmeister, Jorge Luis Borges, 1965

Damocle Edizioni, Venezia (Italy), 2023

ISBN: 978-88-32163-35-3

https://damocleedizioni.com/2023/04/28/fabian-spagnoli-una-entrevista-a-borges-an-interview-with-borges/

This previously unpublished interview of Jorge Luis Borges taken in 1980 by Fabian Spagnoli represents a great literary revelation.

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Aspiring to become a journalist, Fabian Spagnoli was a high school student when he decided to interview Borges. Right after calling him for the first time, Spagnoli barely had the time to grab a recorder when he was immediately invited to speak with Borges in his apartment in Calle Maipú (Buenos Aires). The two extensively discussed Spagnoli’s interests in literature and foreign languages, as well as his future aspirations. This occasion led Borges to share personal memories from his life, his teaching experience in the United States, and his time in Geneva. Despite such accomplishment, Spagnoli never published the interview.

The interview is now published by Damocle Edizioni, a Venetian independent publishing house, in a double Spanish-English version. Transcribed and translated by Jillian Tomm and introduced by Carlo Alberto Petruzzi, the text is enriched with several footnotes which help to contextualize references to Borges’s works, relationships, and circumstances discussed in the interview.

Presented 37 years after Borges’s death, this interview represents a unique document for Borges scholars and all those interested in his literary work and life.