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{{Short description|Argentine writer (1890–1979)}}
{{Short description|Argentine writer (1890–1979)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}}
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}}
| image = Victoria Ocampo y Sur.jpg
| image = Victoria Ocampo y Sur.jpg
| alt =
| alt =
| caption = Ocampo in 1931
| caption = Ocampo in 1931
| birth_name = Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo
| birth_name = Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1890|4|7|df=y}}
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1890|4|7|df=y}}
| birth_place = Buenos Aires, Argentina
| birth_place = [[Buenos Aires]], Argentina
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1979|1|27|1890|4|7|df=y}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1979|1|27|1890|4|7|df=y}}
| death_place = Buenos Aires, Argentina
| death_place = Buenos Aires, Argentina
| alma_mater = [[University of Paris]]
| alma_mater = [[University of Paris]]
| occupation = Writer
| occupation = Writer
| relatives = [[Silvina Ocampo]] (sister)
| relatives = [[Silvina Ocampo]] (sister)
}}
}}


'''Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|CBE}} (7 April 1890 – 27 January 1979)<ref name="WIWH" /> was an Argentine writer and intellectual. Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the literary magazine ''[[Sur (magazine)|Sur]]'', she was also a writer and critic in her own right and one of the most prominent South American women of her time. Her sister is [[Silvina Ocampo]], also a writer.
'''Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE}} (7 April 1890 – 27 January 1979)<ref name="WIWH" /> was an Argentine writer and intellectual. Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the literary magazine ''[[Sur (magazine)|Sur]]'', she was also a writer and critic in her own right and one of the most prominent South American women of her time. Her sister was [[Silvina Ocampo]], also a writer. In [[1970 Nobel Prize in Literature|1970]], she was nominated for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] by Argentine writer Miguel Alfredo Olivera.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=15268|title=Nomination archive – Victoria Ocampo|access-date=10 January 2024|website=nobelprize.org}}</ref>


==Biography==
==Biography==
[[File:Villa Ocampo.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Villa Ocampo]], the writer's [[San Isidro, Buenos Aires|San Isidro]] home, now a cultural center]]
[[File:Villa Ocampo.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Villa Ocampo]], the writer's [[San Isidro, Buenos Aires|San Isidro]] home, now a cultural center]]
Born '''Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo''' in [[Buenos Aires]] into a high-society family, she was educated at home by a French governess. She later wrote: "the alphabet-book in which I learned to read was French, as was the hand that taught me to draw those first letters."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scarzanella |first1=Eugenia |last2=Schpun |first2=Mônica Raisa |title=Sin fronteras: encuentros de mujeres y hombres entre América Latina y Europa, siglos XIX-XX |year=2008 |isbn=9788484894070 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PUOZUHosaIMC&q=el+alfabeto+con+el+que+aprendi+fue+el+frances+victoria+ocampo&pg=PA111 |access-date=20 March 2017}}</ref><ref name="villaocampo"/>
Born '''Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo''' in [[Buenos Aires]] into a high-society family, she was educated at home by a French governess. She later wrote: "the alphabet-book in which I learned to read was French, as was the hand that taught me to draw those first letters."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scarzanella |first1=Eugenia |last2=Schpun |first2=Mônica Raisa |title=Sin fronteras: encuentros de mujeres y hombres entre América Latina y Europa, siglos XIX-XX |year=2008 |publisher=Iberoamericana Editorial |isbn=9788484894070 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PUOZUHosaIMC&q=el+alfabeto+con+el+que+aprendi+fue+el+frances+victoria+ocampo&pg=PA111 |access-date=20 March 2017}}</ref><ref name="villaocampo"/>


She is sometimes said to have attended the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]]: on page 39 of her biography of Ocampo, Doris Meyer states that, during the family's 1906–1907 trip to Paris, the same during which she was etched by [[Paul César Helleu]], the Ocampos allowed 17-year-old Victoria, "well-chaperoned," to audit some lectures at the Sorbonne and at the [[Collège de France]]. She remembered particularly enjoying [[Henri Bergson]]'s lectures at the latter. She never matriculated at either. Her old traditional wealthy family frowned on formal education for women, so Victoria had little. In 1912, Ocampo married Bernando de Estrada (also known as Monaco Estrada). The marriage was not happy; the couple separated in 1920, and Ocampo began a long–lasting affair with her husband's cousin Julián Martínez, a diplomat.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bausset |first1=Ana Margarita|title=Evolucion de la Autobiografia Contemporanea en El Cono Sur: Victoria Ocampo, Jose Donoso E Isabel Allende |isbn=9780549600558|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JAIbUphRiJwC&q=%22victoria%22+%221920%22+%22julian+martinez%22&pg=PA65|access-date=20 March 2017}}</ref><ref name="villaocampo">[http://www.villaocampo.org/ing/historico/victoria.htm Victoria Ocampo's Chronology], villaocampo.org; accessed 25 December 2016.</ref>
She is sometimes said to have attended the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]]: on page 39 of her biography of Ocampo, Doris Meyer states that, during the family's 1906–1907 trip to Paris, the same during which she was etched by [[Paul César Helleu]], the Ocampos allowed 17-year-old Victoria, "well-chaperoned," to audit some lectures at the Sorbonne and at the [[Collège de France]]. She remembered particularly enjoying [[Henri Bergson]]'s lectures at the latter. She never matriculated at either. Her old traditional wealthy family frowned on formal education for women, so she had little. In 1912, Ocampo married Bernando de Estrada (also known as Monaco Estrada). The marriage was not happy; the couple separated in 1920, and Ocampo began a long–lasting affair with her husband's cousin Julián Martínez, a diplomat.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bausset |first1=Ana Margarita|title=Evolucion de la Autobiografia Contemporanea en El Cono Sur: Victoria Ocampo, Jose Donoso E Isabel Allende |isbn=9780549600558|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JAIbUphRiJwC&q=%22victoria%22+%221920%22+%22julian+martinez%22&pg=PA65|access-date=20 March 2017}}</ref><ref name="villaocampo">[http://www.villaocampo.org/ing/historico/victoria.htm Victoria Ocampo's Chronology], villaocampo.org; accessed 25 December 2016.</ref>


In Buenos Aires, she was a lynchpin of the intellectual scene of the 1920s and 1930s. Her first book, written in French, was ''De Francesca à Beatrice'' ({{circa}} 1923), a commentary on [[Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]''. Other works include ''Domingos en Hyde Park''; ''El [[Hamlet]] de [[Laurence Olivier]]''; ''[[Emily Brontë]] (Terra incógnita)''; a series called ''Testimonios'' (ten volumes); ''Virginia Woolf, Orlando y Cía''; ''[[San Isidro (book)|San Isidro]]''; ''338171 T.E. (Lawrence of Arabia)''–a biography of [[T. E. Lawrence]]–and a posthumously published autobiography. There is also an edited book of dialogues between Ocampo and [[Jorge Luis Borges]].<ref name="villaocampo"/>
In Buenos Aires, she was a lynchpin of the intellectual scene of the 1920s and 1930s. Her first book, written in French, was ''De Francesca à Beatrice'' ({{circa}} 1923), a commentary on [[Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]]''. Other works include ''Domingos en Hyde Park''; ''El [[Hamlet]] de [[Laurence Olivier]]''; ''[[Emily Brontë]] (Terra incógnita)''; a series called ''Testimonios'' (ten volumes); ''Virginia Woolf, Orlando y Cía''; ''[[San Isidro (book)|San Isidro]]''; ''338171 T.E. (Lawrence of Arabia)''–a biography of [[T. E. Lawrence]]–and a posthumously published autobiography. There is also an edited book of dialogues between Ocampo and [[Jorge Luis Borges]].<ref name="villaocampo"/>


Ocampo corresponded with [[Virginia Woolf]] throughout 1930s; the two writers met multiple times,<ref>[[Nigel Nicolson]], ed., ''The Letters of Virginia Woolf'', London, [[Hogarth Press]], 1975–80, letters 3128, 3304, 3445, 3450, 3453, 3477, 3478, 3516, 3528.</ref> and their friendship ended in London in June 1939 when Ocampo invited a photographer friend, [[Gisèle Freund|Gisele Freund]], to take Woolf's picture, who famously disliked appearing in photographs.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Parrott|first=Fiona G.|date=2004|title=Friendship, Letters and Butterflies: Victoria Ocampo and Virginia Woolf|url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/33860386/friendship-letters-and-butterflies-victoria-ocampo-and-virginia-woolf|journal=STAR (Scotland's Translatlantic Relations) Project Archive|volume=|pages=|via=}}</ref>
Ocampo corresponded with [[Virginia Woolf]] throughout 1930s; the two writers met multiple times,<ref>[[Nigel Nicolson]], ed., ''The Letters of Virginia Woolf'', London, [[Hogarth Press]], 1975–80, letters 3128, 3304, 3445, 3450, 3453, 3477, 3478, 3516, 3528.</ref> and their friendship ended in London in June 1939 when Ocampo invited a photographer friend, [[Gisèle Freund|Gisele Freund]], to take Woolf's picture, who famously disliked appearing in photographs.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Parrott|first=Fiona G.|date=2004|title=Friendship, Letters and Butterflies: Victoria Ocampo and Virginia Woolf|url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/33860386/friendship-letters-and-butterflies-victoria-ocampo-and-virginia-woolf|journal=STAR (Scotland's Transatlantic Relations) Project Archive|volume=|pages=|via=}}</ref>


Perhaps of greater significance than her own writing, she was founder (1931) and publisher of the magazine ''[[Sur (magazine)|Sur]]'', the most important literary magazine of its time in [[Latin America]]. Among the writers published in ''Sur'' were Borges, [[Ernesto Sabato]], [[Adolfo Bioy Casares]], [[Julio Cortázar]], [[José Ortega y Gasset]], [[Manuel Peyrou]], [[Albert Camus]], [[Enrique Anderson Imbert]], [[José Bianco]], [[Ezequiel Martínez Estrada]], [[Pierre Drieu La Rochelle]], [[Waldo Frank]], [[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Eduardo Mallea]], and her own younger sister [[Silvina Ocampo]].<ref>{{cite web |title=VICTORIA OCAMPO, IMPORTANTE COLECCION – (ARCHIVE – A RARE LOT of 210 items) – Lote de 210 ejemplares: libros firmados, primeras ediciones, revistas Sur, traducciones, notas periodísticas y libros sobre la escritora más importante de la Argentina |url=https://www.iberlibro.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=8574062120&searchurl=fe%3Don%26xpod%3Don%26ds%3D30%26bx%3Don%26sortby%3D1%26kn%3D%2522ernesto%2Bsabato%2522 |website=iberlibro.com |access-date=2 January 2017}}</ref>
Perhaps of greater significance than her own writing, she was founder (1931) and publisher of the magazine ''[[Sur (magazine)|Sur]]'', the most important literary magazine of its time in [[Latin America]]. Among the writers published in ''Sur'' were Borges, [[Ernesto Sabato]], [[Adolfo Bioy Casares]], [[Julio Cortázar]], [[José Ortega y Gasset]], [[Manuel Peyrou]], [[Albert Camus]], [[Enrique Anderson Imbert]], [[José Bianco]], [[Ezequiel Martínez Estrada]], [[Pierre Drieu La Rochelle]], [[Waldo Frank]], [[Gabriela Mistral]], [[Eduardo Mallea]], and her own younger sister [[Silvina Ocampo]].<ref>{{cite web |title=VICTORIA OCAMPO, IMPORTANTE COLECCION – (ARCHIVE – A RARE LOT of 210 items) – Lote de 210 ejemplares: libros firmados, primeras ediciones, revistas Sur, traducciones, notas periodísticas y libros sobre la escritora más importante de la Argentina |url=https://www.iberlibro.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=8574062120&searchurl=fe%3Don%26xpod%3Don%26ds%3D30%26bx%3Don%26sortby%3D1%26kn%3D%2522ernesto%2Bsabato%2522 |website=iberlibro.com |access-date=2 January 2017}}</ref>


In 1935, Ocampo expressed some approval for [[Benito Mussolini]] with whom she was granted an interview in March of that year in Rome, hailing him then as "genius" and Caesar reborn.<ref>Victoria Ocampo, "Living History", in ''Against the Wind and the Tide'', ed. Doris Meyer, [[University of Texas Press]], Austin, TX, 1990, p. 217</ref> "I have seen Italy in blossom turn its face towards him."<ref>Victoria Ocampo, "Living History", in ''Against the Wind and the Tide'', ed. Doris Meyer, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 1990, p. 222</ref> However, she was never a convinced fascist sympathizer, and expressed disapproval of Mussolini's conservative views on gender roles and the regime's growing militarism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=Gayle |title=Modernism and the New Spain: Britain, Cosmopolitan Europe, and Literary History |date=2014 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=140–141}}</ref> By the time her interview with Mussolini was published in August 1936, Italy had invaded Abyssinia and Ocampo appended a note to it declaring that any hope that the fascist regime might improve was lost and criticized those in Argentina who supported Italy's belligerence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=Gayle |title=Modernism and the New Spain: Britain, Cosmopolitan Europe, and Literary History |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=258}}</ref>
In 1935, Ocampo expressed some approval for [[Benito Mussolini]] with whom she was granted an interview in March of that year in Rome, hailing him then as a "genius" and Caesar reborn.<ref>Victoria Ocampo, "Living History", in ''Against the Wind and the Tide'', ed. Doris Meyer, [[University of Texas Press]], Austin, TX, 1990, p. 217</ref> "I have seen Italy in blossom turn its face towards him."<ref>Victoria Ocampo, "Living History", in ''Against the Wind and the Tide'', ed. Doris Meyer, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 1990, p. 222</ref> However, she was never a convinced fascist sympathizer, and expressed disapproval of Mussolini's conservative views on gender roles and the regime's growing militarism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=Gayle |title=Modernism and the New Spain: Britain, Cosmopolitan Europe, and Literary History |date=2014 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=140–141}}</ref> By the time her interview with Mussolini was published in August 1936, Italy had invaded Abyssinia and Ocampo appended a note to it declaring that any hope that the fascist regime might improve was lost and criticized those in Argentina who supported Italy's belligerence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogers |first1=Gayle |title=Modernism and the New Spain: Britain, Cosmopolitan Europe, and Literary History |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=258}}</ref>
[[File:Sur equipment.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The ''Sur'' editorial team in 1961: Ocampo, in the center, between [[Adolfo Bioy Casares]], [[Alicia Jurado]] and [[Jorge Luis Borges]].]]

In 1937, Ocampo and the editors of ''Sur'' came out openly against fascism and definitively linked the journal with [[liberalism]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Strong |first1=Beret E. |title=The Poetic Avant-garde: The Groups of Borges, Auden, and Breton |date=1997 |publisher=[[Northwestern University Press]] |pages=108–111}}</ref> During the [[Spanish Civil War]], the magazine sided with the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republicans]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Strong |first1=Beret E. |title=The Poetic Avant-garde: The Groups of Borges, Auden, and Breton |date=1997 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |page=98}}</ref> She supported and edited from Argentina, in collaboration with her friend and translator [[Pelegrina Pastorino]], the anti-Nazi magazine ''[[Les Lettres Francaises]]'', directed by [[Roger Caillois]]; and in 1946 she was the only Argentine who attended the [[Nuremberg Trials]]. A few months before [[World War II]], in 1939, Ocampo was appointed to the [[International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation]] of the [[League of Nations]], but did not participate in its works.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grandjean |first=Martin |date=2018 |title=Les réseaux de la coopération intellectuelle. La Société des Nations comme actrice des échanges scientifiques et culturels dans l'entre-deux-guerres |trans-title=The Networks of Intellectual Cooperation. The League of Nations as an Actor of the Scientific and Cultural Exchanges in the Inter-War Period |url=https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01853903 |language=fr |location=Lausanne |publisher=Université de Lausanne}} p. 290.</ref> In 1953, she was briefly imprisoned for her open opposition to the government of [[Juan Domingo Perón]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vázquez |first1=María Esther |title=Victoria Ocampo: El Mundo Como Destino |year=2002 |publisher=Seix Barral |isbn=9789507313462 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DjRfAAAAMAAJ&q=%221953%22+%22victoria+ocampo%22+%22presa%22 |access-date=30 December 2016}}</ref>
In 1937, Ocampo and the editors of ''Sur'' came out openly against fascism and definitively linked the journal with [[liberalism]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Strong |first1=Beret E. |title=The Poetic Avant-garde: The Groups of Borges, Auden, and Breton |date=1997 |publisher=[[Northwestern University Press]] |pages=108–111}}</ref> During the [[Spanish Civil War]], the magazine sided with the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republicans]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Strong |first1=Beret E. |title=The Poetic Avant-garde: The Groups of Borges, Auden, and Breton |date=1997 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |page=98}}</ref> She supported and edited from Argentina, in collaboration with her friend and translator [[Pelegrina Pastorino]], the anti-Nazi magazine ''[[Les Lettres Francaises]]'', directed by [[Roger Caillois]]; and in 1946 she was the only Argentine who attended the [[Nuremberg Trials]]. A few months before [[World War II]], in 1939, Ocampo was appointed to the [[International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation]] of the [[League of Nations]], but did not participate in its works.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Grandjean |first=Martin |date=2018 |title=Les réseaux de la coopération intellectuelle. La Société des Nations comme actrice des échanges scientifiques et culturels dans l'entre-deux-guerres |trans-title=The Networks of Intellectual Cooperation. The League of Nations as an Actor of the Scientific and Cultural Exchanges in the Inter-War Period |url=https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01853903 |language=fr |location=Lausanne |publisher=Université de Lausanne|type=phdthesis }} p. 290.</ref> In 1953, she was briefly imprisoned for her open opposition to the government of [[Juan Domingo Perón]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vázquez |first1=María Esther |title=Victoria Ocampo: El Mundo Como Destino |year=2002 |publisher=Seix Barral |isbn=9789507313462 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DjRfAAAAMAAJ&q=%221953%22+%22victoria+ocampo%22+%22presa%22 |access-date=30 December 2016}}</ref>


Ocampo was made a member of the [[Academia Argentina de Letras|Argentine Academy of Letters]] in 1976. She was the first woman ever admitted to the Academy, and she formally took her seat on 23 June 1977. The "cultural dialog," initiated in 1977 by the ''de facto'' government but organized by [[UNESCO]], was held in her home, [[Villa Ocampo]], in [[San Isidro, Buenos Aires|San Isidro]], [[Buenos Aires Province]]; she eventually donated the house to UNESCO in 1973.<ref>{{cite news |title=La mansión donde Victoria Ocampo aún está presente festeja sus 125 años |url=http://www.clarin.com/ciudades/mansion-victoria-ocampo-presente-festeja_0_EJPxDv8ag.html |language=es |access-date=2 January 2017 |agency=[[Clarín Group|Clarín]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://unescovillaocampo.org/web/victoria-ocampo-y-la-unesco/ |title=Victoria Ocampo y la UNESCO |language=es |access-date=1 April 2020}}</ref>
Ocampo was made a member of the [[Academia Argentina de Letras|Argentine Academy of Letters]] in 1976. She was the first woman ever admitted to the Academy, and she formally took her seat on 23 June 1977. The "cultural dialog," initiated in 1977 by the ''de facto'' government but organized by [[UNESCO]], was held in her home, [[Villa Ocampo]], in [[San Isidro, Buenos Aires|San Isidro]], [[Buenos Aires Province]]; she eventually donated the house to UNESCO in 1973.<ref>{{cite news |title=La mansión donde Victoria Ocampo aún está presente festeja sus 125 años |url=http://www.clarin.com/ciudades/mansion-victoria-ocampo-presente-festeja_0_EJPxDv8ag.html |language=es |access-date=2 January 2017 |agency=[[Clarín Group|Clarín]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://unescovillaocampo.org/web/victoria-ocampo-y-la-unesco/ |title=Victoria Ocampo y la UNESCO |language=es |access-date=1 April 2020}}</ref>


At Villa Ocampo, her guests included [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[André Malraux]] and [[Rabindranath Tagore]], also [[Indira Gandhi]], [[José Ortega y Gasset]], [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]], [[Ernest Ansermet]] and [[Rafael Alberti]]. [[Graham Greene]] dedicated his 1973 novel ''[[The Honorary Consul]]'' to her, "with love, and in memory of the many happy weeks I have passed at San Isidro and [[Mar del Plata]]."
At Villa Ocampo, her guests included [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[André Malraux]] and [[Rabindranath Tagore]], also [[Indira Gandhi]], [[José Ortega y Gasset]], [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]], [[Saint-John Perse,]] [[Ernest Ansermet]] and [[Rafael Alberti]]. [[Graham Greene]] dedicated his 1973 novel ''[[The Honorary Consul]]'' to her, "with love, and in memory of the many happy weeks I have passed at San Isidro and [[Mar del Plata]]."


Victoria Ocampo died in Buenos Aires in 1979, and is buried in [[La Recoleta Cemetery]] in Buenos Aires.<ref>{{cite web |title=Famosos |url=http://www.cementeriorecoleta.com.ar/famosos_cr.htm |website=cementeriorecoleta.com.ar |access-date=30 December 2016}}</ref>
Victoria Ocampo died in Buenos Aires in 1979, and is buried in [[La Recoleta Cemetery]] in Buenos Aires.<ref>{{cite web |title=Famosos |url=http://www.cementeriorecoleta.com.ar/famosos_cr.htm |website=cementeriorecoleta.com.ar |access-date=30 December 2016}}</ref>

==Literary Works==
===Testimonials===
* ''Testimonios, 1.ª serie'' ("Testimonials, 1st series": 1935)
* ''Testimonios, 2.ª serie'' ("Testimonials, 2nd series": 1941)
* ''Testimonios, 3.ª serie'' ("Testimonials, 3rd series": 1950)
* ''Testimonios, 4.ª serie'' ("Testimonials, 4th series": 1950)
* ''Testimonios, 5.ª serie'' ("Testimonials, 5th series": 1954)
* ''Testimonios, 6.ª serie'' ("Testimonials, 6th series": 1962)
* ''Testimonios, 7.ª serie'' ("Testimonials, 7th series": 1967)
* ''Testimonios, 8.ª serie'' ("Testimonials, 8th series": 1971)
* ''Testimonios, 9.ª serie'' ("Testimonials, 9th series": 1975)
* ''Testimonios, 10.ª serie'' ("Testimonials, 10th series": 1998)

===Autobiography===
* ''Autobiografía I: El archipiélago'' ("Autobiography I: The Archipelago", 1979)
* ''Autobiografía II: El imperio insular'' ("Autobiography II: The Island Empire", 1980)
* ''Autobiografía III: La rama de Salzburgo'' ("Autobiography III: The Salzburg Branch", 1981)
* ''Autobiografía IV: Viraje'' ("Autobiography IV: Turning", 1982)
* ''Autobiografía V: Figuras simbólicas'' ("Autobiography V: Symbolic Figures", 1983)
* ''Autobiografía VI: Sur y Cía'' ("Autobiography VI: Sur y Cía", 1984)

===Essays and Non-fictions===
* ''De Francesca a Beatrice'' ("From Francesca to Beatrice", 1924 and 1963; with a prologue by [[José Ortega y Gasset]])
* ''La laguna de los nenúfares'' ("The Water Lily Lagoon", 1926)
* ''Domingos en Hyde Park'' ("Sundays in Hyde Park", 1936)
* ''San Isidro'' (with a poem by [[Silvina Ocampo]] and 68 photographs by [[Gustavo Thorlichen]], 1941)
* ''Le Vert Paradis'' (1947)
* ''Henry V y Laurence Olivier'' ("Henry V and Lawrence Olivier, 1947)
* ''Lawrence d'Arabia'' (published in French and English, 1947)
* ''El viajero y una de sus sombras'' ("The Traveler and One of His Shadows", 1951)
* ''Lawrence de Arabia y otros ensayos'' ("Lawrence of Arabia and Other Essays", 1951)
* ''Virginia Woolf en su diario'' ("Virginia Woolf in Her Diary", 1954)
* ''Habla el algarrobo: luz y sonido'' ("The Carob Tree Speaks: Light and Sound", 1959)
* ''Tagore en las barrancas de San Isidro'' ("Tagore in the San Isidro Ravines", 1961)
* ''Juan Sebastián Bach, El hombre'' ("Juan Sebastian Bach, The Man", 1964)
* ''La bella y sus enamorados'' ("The Beauty and Her Lovers", 1964)
* ''Diálogo con Borges'' ("Dialogue with Borges", 1969)
* ''Diálogo con Mallea'' ("Dialogue with Mallea", 1969)
* ''Páginas dispersas de Victoria Ocampo'' ("Scattered Pages of Victoria Ocampo", 1987)

===Translations===
* ''Caligula'' ([[Caligula (play)|play]] by [[Albert Camus]], 1946)
* ''Gigi'' ([[Gigi (novella)|novella]] by [[Colette]] and [[Gigi (play)|play]] by [[Anita Loos]], 1946)
* ''El cuarto en que se vive'' ([[The Living Room (play)|play]] by [[Graham Greene]], 1953)
* ''Vinoba'' (biography by [[Lanza del Vasto]], 1955)
* ''Réquiem para una reclusa'' ([[Requiem for a Nun|novel]] by [[William Faulkner]] and [[Requiem for a Nun (play)|adapted play]] by Albert Camus, 1957)
* ''El que pierde gana'' ([[Loser Takes All|novella]] by Graham Greene, 1957)
* ''La casilla de las macetas'' ([[The Potting Shed|play]] by Graham Greene, 1957)
* ''El amante complaciente'' ([[The Complaisant Lover|play]] by Graham Greene, 1959)
* ''El troquel'' (book by [[T. E. Lawrence]], 1959)
* ''Bajo el bosque de leche'' ([[Under Milk Wood|play]] by [[Dylan Thomas]], 1959)
* ''Los poseídos'' ([[Demons (Dostoevsky novel)|novel]] by [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] and [[The Possessed (play)|adapted play]] by Albert Camus, 1960)
* ''Tallando una estatua'' ([[Carving a Statue|play]] by Graham Greene, 1965)
* ''Antología'' (selected writings by [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], 1966)
* ''Mi vida es mi mensaje'' (book by [[Mahatma Gandhi]], 1970)
* ''La vuelta de A.J.Raffles'' ([[The Return of A. J. Raffles|play]] by Graham Greene, 1976)
* ''Oda Jubilar'' (poems by [[Paul Claudel]], 1978)


==Honors==
==Honors==
* [[Maria Moors Cabot prize]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://journalism.columbia.edu/system/files/content/past_cabot_winners_list_0.pdf |format=PDF |title=Past Maria Moors Cabot Prizes Winners |publisher=Columbia Journalism School |access-date=23 January 2021}}</ref>
* [[Maria Moors Cabot prize]]<ref>{{cite web |date=2020-07-13 |title=Past Maria Moors Cabot Prizes Winners |url=https://journalism.columbia.edu/system/files/content/past_cabot_winners_list_0.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107015929/https://journalism.columbia.edu/system/files/content/past_cabot_winners_list_0.pdf |archive-date=2020-11-07 |access-date=23 January 2021 |publisher=Columbia Journalism School}}</ref>
* [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]<ref name="WIWH">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ocampo-victoria-1890-1979 |title=Ocampo, Victoria (1890–1979) |first=Paul B. |last=Goodwin Jr. |work=Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia |via=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref>
* [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]<ref name="WIWH">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ocampo-victoria-1890-1979 |title=Ocampo, Victoria (1890–1979) |first=Paul B. |last=Goodwin Jr. |encyclopedia=Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia |via=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref>
* [[Doctor honoris causa]] – [[Harvard University]], [[Visva-Bharati University]]<ref name="WIWH" />
* [[Doctor honoris causa]] – [[Harvard University]], [[Visva-Bharati University]]<ref name="WIWH" />
* Premio de Honor de la Sociedad Argentina de Escritores [Argentine Society of Writers]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sade.org.ar/premiodehonor.html |title=GRAN PREMIO DE HONOR |publisher=Sociedad Argentina de Escritores |language=es-ar |access-date=23 January 2021}}</ref>
* Premio de Honor de la Sociedad Argentina de Escritores [Argentine Society of Writers]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sade.org.ar/premiodehonor.html |title=GRAN PREMIO DE HONOR |publisher=Sociedad Argentina de Escritores |language=es-ar |access-date=23 January 2021}}</ref>
Line 59: Line 117:
*Dyson, Ketaki Kushari: ''In Your Blossoming Flower Garden: Rabindranath Tagore and Victoria Ocampo'', New Delhi, Sahitya Akademi, 1988; reprinted 1996. {{ISBN|81-260-0174-7}}.
*Dyson, Ketaki Kushari: ''In Your Blossoming Flower Garden: Rabindranath Tagore and Victoria Ocampo'', New Delhi, Sahitya Akademi, 1988; reprinted 1996. {{ISBN|81-260-0174-7}}.
*[[Susan Bassnett|Bassnett, Susan]], 1990 (ed.): ''Knives and Angels: Women Writers in Latin America''. London/New Jersey: Zed Books.
*[[Susan Bassnett|Bassnett, Susan]], 1990 (ed.): ''Knives and Angels: Women Writers in Latin America''. London/New Jersey: Zed Books.
*Stephenson, Craig E.: ''The Correspondence of Victoria Ocampo, Count Keyserling and C.G. Jung: Writing to the Woman Who Was Everything,'' Abingdon, New York 2023; ISBN 978-1-032-20955-5


==External links==
==External links==
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[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Buenos Aires]]
[[Category:Writers from Buenos Aires]]
[[Category:Argentine people of Galician descent]]
[[Category:Argentine people of Galician descent]]
[[Category:University of Paris alumni]]
[[Category:University of Paris alumni]]
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[[Category:Burials at La Recoleta Cemetery]]
[[Category:Burials at La Recoleta Cemetery]]
[[Category:Maria Moors Cabot Prize winners]]
[[Category:Maria Moors Cabot Prize winners]]
[[Category:Honorary Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Honorary commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Argentine anti-fascists]]
[[Category:Argentine anti-fascists]]

Latest revision as of 22:04, 12 September 2024

Victoria Ocampo
CBE
Ocampo in 1931
Born
Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo

(1890-04-07)7 April 1890
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died27 January 1979(1979-01-27) (aged 88)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Alma materUniversity of Paris
OccupationWriter
RelativesSilvina Ocampo (sister)

Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo CBE (7 April 1890 – 27 January 1979)[1] was an Argentine writer and intellectual. Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the literary magazine Sur, she was also a writer and critic in her own right and one of the most prominent South American women of her time. Her sister was Silvina Ocampo, also a writer. In 1970, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Argentine writer Miguel Alfredo Olivera.[2]

Biography

[edit]
Villa Ocampo, the writer's San Isidro home, now a cultural center

Born Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo in Buenos Aires into a high-society family, she was educated at home by a French governess. She later wrote: "the alphabet-book in which I learned to read was French, as was the hand that taught me to draw those first letters."[3][4]

She is sometimes said to have attended the Sorbonne: on page 39 of her biography of Ocampo, Doris Meyer states that, during the family's 1906–1907 trip to Paris, the same during which she was etched by Paul César Helleu, the Ocampos allowed 17-year-old Victoria, "well-chaperoned," to audit some lectures at the Sorbonne and at the Collège de France. She remembered particularly enjoying Henri Bergson's lectures at the latter. She never matriculated at either. Her old traditional wealthy family frowned on formal education for women, so she had little. In 1912, Ocampo married Bernando de Estrada (also known as Monaco Estrada). The marriage was not happy; the couple separated in 1920, and Ocampo began a long–lasting affair with her husband's cousin Julián Martínez, a diplomat.[5][4]

In Buenos Aires, she was a lynchpin of the intellectual scene of the 1920s and 1930s. Her first book, written in French, was De Francesca à Beatrice (c. 1923), a commentary on Dante's Divine Comedy. Other works include Domingos en Hyde Park; El Hamlet de Laurence Olivier; Emily Brontë (Terra incógnita); a series called Testimonios (ten volumes); Virginia Woolf, Orlando y Cía; San Isidro; 338171 T.E. (Lawrence of Arabia)–a biography of T. E. Lawrence–and a posthumously published autobiography. There is also an edited book of dialogues between Ocampo and Jorge Luis Borges.[4]

Ocampo corresponded with Virginia Woolf throughout 1930s; the two writers met multiple times,[6] and their friendship ended in London in June 1939 when Ocampo invited a photographer friend, Gisele Freund, to take Woolf's picture, who famously disliked appearing in photographs.[7]

Perhaps of greater significance than her own writing, she was founder (1931) and publisher of the magazine Sur, the most important literary magazine of its time in Latin America. Among the writers published in Sur were Borges, Ernesto Sabato, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Julio Cortázar, José Ortega y Gasset, Manuel Peyrou, Albert Camus, Enrique Anderson Imbert, José Bianco, Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Waldo Frank, Gabriela Mistral, Eduardo Mallea, and her own younger sister Silvina Ocampo.[8]

In 1935, Ocampo expressed some approval for Benito Mussolini with whom she was granted an interview in March of that year in Rome, hailing him then as a "genius" and Caesar reborn.[9] "I have seen Italy in blossom turn its face towards him."[10] However, she was never a convinced fascist sympathizer, and expressed disapproval of Mussolini's conservative views on gender roles and the regime's growing militarism.[11] By the time her interview with Mussolini was published in August 1936, Italy had invaded Abyssinia and Ocampo appended a note to it declaring that any hope that the fascist regime might improve was lost and criticized those in Argentina who supported Italy's belligerence.[12]

The Sur editorial team in 1961: Ocampo, in the center, between Adolfo Bioy Casares, Alicia Jurado and Jorge Luis Borges.

In 1937, Ocampo and the editors of Sur came out openly against fascism and definitively linked the journal with liberalism.[13] During the Spanish Civil War, the magazine sided with the Republicans.[14] She supported and edited from Argentina, in collaboration with her friend and translator Pelegrina Pastorino, the anti-Nazi magazine Les Lettres Francaises, directed by Roger Caillois; and in 1946 she was the only Argentine who attended the Nuremberg Trials. A few months before World War II, in 1939, Ocampo was appointed to the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations, but did not participate in its works.[15] In 1953, she was briefly imprisoned for her open opposition to the government of Juan Domingo Perón.[16]

Ocampo was made a member of the Argentine Academy of Letters in 1976. She was the first woman ever admitted to the Academy, and she formally took her seat on 23 June 1977. The "cultural dialog," initiated in 1977 by the de facto government but organized by UNESCO, was held in her home, Villa Ocampo, in San Isidro, Buenos Aires Province; she eventually donated the house to UNESCO in 1973.[17][18]

At Villa Ocampo, her guests included Igor Stravinsky, André Malraux and Rabindranath Tagore, also Indira Gandhi, José Ortega y Gasset, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Saint-John Perse, Ernest Ansermet and Rafael Alberti. Graham Greene dedicated his 1973 novel The Honorary Consul to her, "with love, and in memory of the many happy weeks I have passed at San Isidro and Mar del Plata."

Victoria Ocampo died in Buenos Aires in 1979, and is buried in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.[19]

Literary Works

[edit]

Testimonials

[edit]
  • Testimonios, 1.ª serie ("Testimonials, 1st series": 1935)
  • Testimonios, 2.ª serie ("Testimonials, 2nd series": 1941)
  • Testimonios, 3.ª serie ("Testimonials, 3rd series": 1950)
  • Testimonios, 4.ª serie ("Testimonials, 4th series": 1950)
  • Testimonios, 5.ª serie ("Testimonials, 5th series": 1954)
  • Testimonios, 6.ª serie ("Testimonials, 6th series": 1962)
  • Testimonios, 7.ª serie ("Testimonials, 7th series": 1967)
  • Testimonios, 8.ª serie ("Testimonials, 8th series": 1971)
  • Testimonios, 9.ª serie ("Testimonials, 9th series": 1975)
  • Testimonios, 10.ª serie ("Testimonials, 10th series": 1998)

Autobiography

[edit]
  • Autobiografía I: El archipiélago ("Autobiography I: The Archipelago", 1979)
  • Autobiografía II: El imperio insular ("Autobiography II: The Island Empire", 1980)
  • Autobiografía III: La rama de Salzburgo ("Autobiography III: The Salzburg Branch", 1981)
  • Autobiografía IV: Viraje ("Autobiography IV: Turning", 1982)
  • Autobiografía V: Figuras simbólicas ("Autobiography V: Symbolic Figures", 1983)
  • Autobiografía VI: Sur y Cía ("Autobiography VI: Sur y Cía", 1984)

Essays and Non-fictions

[edit]
  • De Francesca a Beatrice ("From Francesca to Beatrice", 1924 and 1963; with a prologue by José Ortega y Gasset)
  • La laguna de los nenúfares ("The Water Lily Lagoon", 1926)
  • Domingos en Hyde Park ("Sundays in Hyde Park", 1936)
  • San Isidro (with a poem by Silvina Ocampo and 68 photographs by Gustavo Thorlichen, 1941)
  • Le Vert Paradis (1947)
  • Henry V y Laurence Olivier ("Henry V and Lawrence Olivier, 1947)
  • Lawrence d'Arabia (published in French and English, 1947)
  • El viajero y una de sus sombras ("The Traveler and One of His Shadows", 1951)
  • Lawrence de Arabia y otros ensayos ("Lawrence of Arabia and Other Essays", 1951)
  • Virginia Woolf en su diario ("Virginia Woolf in Her Diary", 1954)
  • Habla el algarrobo: luz y sonido ("The Carob Tree Speaks: Light and Sound", 1959)
  • Tagore en las barrancas de San Isidro ("Tagore in the San Isidro Ravines", 1961)
  • Juan Sebastián Bach, El hombre ("Juan Sebastian Bach, The Man", 1964)
  • La bella y sus enamorados ("The Beauty and Her Lovers", 1964)
  • Diálogo con Borges ("Dialogue with Borges", 1969)
  • Diálogo con Mallea ("Dialogue with Mallea", 1969)
  • Páginas dispersas de Victoria Ocampo ("Scattered Pages of Victoria Ocampo", 1987)

Translations

[edit]

Honors

[edit]

Biopics

[edit]
  • Her life was portrayed in a film for TV in 1984 "Four Faces of Victoria", directed by Oscar Barney Finn with four actresses playing the different ages of Victoria (Carola Reyna, Nacha Guevara, Julia von Grolman and China Zorrilla).[23]
  • Her attitude and political views were depicted in Monica Ottino's theater play Eva and Victoria, an imaginary confrontation between the young Eva Perón and the elderly Victoria. The play ran successfully during the eighties with Soledad Silveyra as Eva and China Zorrilla as Victoria.[24]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Goodwin Jr., Paul B. "Ocampo, Victoria (1890–1979)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia – via Encyclopedia.com.
  2. ^ "Nomination archive – Victoria Ocampo". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  3. ^ Scarzanella, Eugenia; Schpun, Mônica Raisa (2008). Sin fronteras: encuentros de mujeres y hombres entre América Latina y Europa, siglos XIX-XX. Iberoamericana Editorial. ISBN 9788484894070. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  4. ^ a b c Victoria Ocampo's Chronology, villaocampo.org; accessed 25 December 2016.
  5. ^ Bausset, Ana Margarita. Evolucion de la Autobiografia Contemporanea en El Cono Sur: Victoria Ocampo, Jose Donoso E Isabel Allende. ISBN 9780549600558. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  6. ^ Nigel Nicolson, ed., The Letters of Virginia Woolf, London, Hogarth Press, 1975–80, letters 3128, 3304, 3445, 3450, 3453, 3477, 3478, 3516, 3528.
  7. ^ Parrott, Fiona G. (2004). "Friendship, Letters and Butterflies: Victoria Ocampo and Virginia Woolf". STAR (Scotland's Transatlantic Relations) Project Archive.
  8. ^ "VICTORIA OCAMPO, IMPORTANTE COLECCION – (ARCHIVE – A RARE LOT of 210 items) – Lote de 210 ejemplares: libros firmados, primeras ediciones, revistas Sur, traducciones, notas periodísticas y libros sobre la escritora más importante de la Argentina". iberlibro.com. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  9. ^ Victoria Ocampo, "Living History", in Against the Wind and the Tide, ed. Doris Meyer, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 1990, p. 217
  10. ^ Victoria Ocampo, "Living History", in Against the Wind and the Tide, ed. Doris Meyer, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 1990, p. 222
  11. ^ Rogers, Gayle (2014). Modernism and the New Spain: Britain, Cosmopolitan Europe, and Literary History. Oxford University Press. pp. 140–141.
  12. ^ Rogers, Gayle (2014). Modernism and the New Spain: Britain, Cosmopolitan Europe, and Literary History. Oxford University Press. p. 258.
  13. ^ Strong, Beret E. (1997). The Poetic Avant-garde: The Groups of Borges, Auden, and Breton. Northwestern University Press. pp. 108–111.
  14. ^ Strong, Beret E. (1997). The Poetic Avant-garde: The Groups of Borges, Auden, and Breton. Northwestern University Press. p. 98.
  15. ^ Grandjean, Martin (2018). Les réseaux de la coopération intellectuelle. La Société des Nations comme actrice des échanges scientifiques et culturels dans l'entre-deux-guerres [The Networks of Intellectual Cooperation. The League of Nations as an Actor of the Scientific and Cultural Exchanges in the Inter-War Period] (phdthesis) (in French). Lausanne: Université de Lausanne. p. 290.
  16. ^ Vázquez, María Esther (2002). Victoria Ocampo: El Mundo Como Destino. Seix Barral. ISBN 9789507313462. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  17. ^ "La mansión donde Victoria Ocampo aún está presente festeja sus 125 años" (in Spanish). Clarín. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  18. ^ "Victoria Ocampo y la UNESCO" (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  19. ^ "Famosos". cementeriorecoleta.com.ar. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  20. ^ "Past Maria Moors Cabot Prizes Winners" (PDF). Columbia Journalism School. 13 July 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  21. ^ "GRAN PREMIO DE HONOR" (in Spanish). Sociedad Argentina de Escritores. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  22. ^ "Victoria OCAMPO" (in French). Académie française. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  23. ^ "Oscar Barney-Finn". fundacionfirstteam.org. Retrieved 2 January 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  24. ^ "Eva y Victoria". diversica.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2017.

References

[edit]
  • Chiappini, Julio: Victoria Ocampo. Biografía, Rosario, Editorial Fas, 2012; 2 vol.
  • Meyer, Doris: Victoria Ocampo: Against the Wind and the Tide (Texas Pan-American Series paperback, University of Texas Press, reprint edition, 1990). Originally published New York, George Brazillier, 1978. Re-issue ISBN 0-292-78710-3.
  • Dyson, Ketaki Kushari: In Your Blossoming Flower Garden: Rabindranath Tagore and Victoria Ocampo, New Delhi, Sahitya Akademi, 1988; reprinted 1996. ISBN 81-260-0174-7.
  • Bassnett, Susan, 1990 (ed.): Knives and Angels: Women Writers in Latin America. London/New Jersey: Zed Books.
  • Stephenson, Craig E.: The Correspondence of Victoria Ocampo, Count Keyserling and C.G. Jung: Writing to the Woman Who Was Everything, Abingdon, New York 2023; ISBN 978-1-032-20955-5
[edit]
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