BORGES (JORGE LUIS)
El jardin de senderos que se bifurcan, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY TO VICTORIA OCAMPO, inscribed on half-title 'Para Victoria Ocampo, amiga e colaboradora de esta iniciativa feliz, con todo mi agradecimiento y admiración. Jorge Luis Borges. San Isidro, 1942', a little light browning, one short nick to fore-edge of title, untrimmed and partially unopened in publisher's light blue wrappers printed in white, a little light soiling and creasing towards edges, spine slightly faded but otherwise very good [Becco 29; Loewenstein 355; Vallely], 8vo, Buenos Aires, Editorial Sur, 1942 [colophon: 30 December 1941]
Footnotes:
'ARGUABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK OF MODERN LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE': INSCRIBED BY BORGES TO HIS 'COLLABORATOR' VICTORIA OCAMPO, THE DEDICATEE OF THE TITLE STORY AND ONE OF THE FIRST LATIN AMERICAN FEMINISTS.

'This is Borges's crucial book, arguably the most important work of modern Latin American literature.... it is easy to forget how original, indeed revolutionary, were Borges's procedures, especially in Latin America, which international modernism had yet to penetrate... The light blue wrappers... seem an unmistakable reference to James Joyce's Shakespeare & Co.. Ulysses... of which Borges proclaimed himself the first hispanic explorer in his callow youth' (Charles Vallely, Jorge Luis Borges. A Catalogue of Unique Books and Manuscripts, Lame Duck Books, 2003).

El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan ('The Garden of Forking Paths') was Borges's first collection of short stories, most of which had previously been published by Victoria Ocampo in Sur. Although it was critically lauded, the book failed to win the literary prizes many expected, leading Ocampo to dedicate a large part of the July 1941 issue of Sur to a 'Reparation for Borges'. The eight stories in El jardín, augmented by nine new ones, were then published as 1944's Ficciones, the work that would herald the author's international breakthrough. One of new stories was 'Funes el memorioso', a manuscript of which is included in the present sale.

A key figure in Borges's life as far back as 1925, Victoria Ocampo (1890-1979) was an Argentinian writer, publisher, feminist and influential intellectual. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, and is perhaps best known for having founded the most important Latin American literary magazine of the time, Sur, in the 1930s. During the same decade she also developed a close friendship with Virginia Woolf following her involvement in Borges's translations of A Room of One's Own and Orlando, but this ended after Ocampo attempted to persuade the camera-shy author to have her photograph taken. She also radically shifted her political views as the decade progressed. Having shown some initial admiration for Mussolini in Italy, she gave her support to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, edited an anti-Nazi magazine during World War II, was the only Argentinian to attend the Nuremberg Trials, and spent time in prison for expressing her anti-Peronist views in 1953.

In her later life Ocampo became the first woman to be admitted to the Argentine Academy of Letters, and her many famous friends and guests included Stravinsky, Malraux, Tagore and Graham Greene, who dedicated The Honorary Consul to her. 'Elegant and aristocratic, Ocampo was one of the first Latin American feminists, and fought to uphold the rights of women authors; her 'Letter to Virginia' documents her beliefs' (E. Fishburn & P. Hughes, A Dictionary of Borges, Duckworth, 1990).

Provenance: Victoria Ocampo, inscribed to her by Borges on half-title; private collection.
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Last few gatherings unopened. Occasional soiling (mainly first few leaves).
2 small ink spots to upper cover, slight rubbing/creasing at edges, slight soiling to lower cover, but overall very good.