W. C. | June 8, 2023
The Biblioteca Personal Edition
On Borges, remembrances, and warm regards.
W. is a friend of WITI who doesn’t like his name plastered on the Internet. Fair play. Enjoy this edition and be sure to save that PDF for future reference. -Colin (CJN)
W.C. here. Jorge Luis Borges, the consummate reader & librarian of the infinite, left behind an unfinished gift in the form of his Biblioteca Personal, meant to be 100 selections of personally-prized literature. Each was to have a written prologue and the entries were a kaleidoscopic collection of remembrances, lyrical passages, and warm regards.
Here’s a PDF of the list of the books for your home enjoyment (Includes a blank list if you feel so inclined as to start your own Biblioteca Personal.) Here is the full PDF.
Why is this interesting?
A bit of context behind the project:
In 1985, Argentine publisher Hyspamerica asked Borges to create A Personal Library — which involved curating 100 great works of literature and writing introductions for each volume. Though he only got through 74 books before he died of liver cancer in 1988, Borges’s selections are fascinating and deeply idiosyncratic. He listed adventure tales by Robert Louis Stevenson and H.G. Wells alongside exotic holy books, 8th century Japanese poetry and the musing of Kierkegaard.
Borges on the project:
“Deseo que esta biblioteca sea tan diversa como la no saciada curiosidad que me ha inducido, y sigue induciéndome, a la exploración de tantos lenguajes y de tantas literaturas”
"I want this library to be as diverse as the unsatisfied curiosity that has led me, and continues to lead me, to explore so many languages and so many literatures."
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Thanks for reading,
Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & W. (WC)
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