From Julio: Selected Letters of Julio Cortázar, Volume One (1937-1966)
Nov 2026 · New York Review of Books
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About this ebook
A collection of letters by one of the greatest writers of the last hundred years, From Julio spans nearly three decades of Cortázar's life.
"He was, perhaps without trying, the Argentine who made the whole world love him."
— Gabriel García Márquez
Between 1937 and 1966, Julio Cortázar lived in Buenos Aires and then Paris, spent time in Geneva, Havana, Helsinki, Rome, Vienna and beyond. From these varied perches he wrote some of the most important novels and short stories of the 20th century. He also dispatched frequent letters and doodles to his friends. To read these missives in Sarah Moses and Anne McLean’s inspired translations is to hear a furious clacking at the keys, to be caught up in a spontaneous stampede (or rivulet, or sarabande) of thought. It’s also to eavesdrop on a community of significant artists. Cortázar wrote to Victoria Ocampo, Octavio Paz, Mario Vargas Llosa, Luis Buñuel, Carlos Fuentes, Alejandra Pizarnik, Jorge Luis Borges—to name them all would require lungs of steel. Throughout, Julio Cortázar responds to his friends’ work with meticulous honesty. His critical interpretations often open onto expansive ideas about the nature of art, or to exhilarating backflips of logic familiar to readers of his fiction.
In a letter to Ana María Barrenachea, Cortázar says a recent letter from her is “like a deep breath, full of sounds and things barely said and found movements . . . like a glass ball, something where reflections and murmurs and life are continually flashing through.” He could have been describing his own sensitive, jubilant writing. Open the book to any page and you’ll find Cortázar’s brilliant mind twinkling out.
"He was, perhaps without trying, the Argentine who made the whole world love him."
— Gabriel García Márquez
Between 1937 and 1966, Julio Cortázar lived in Buenos Aires and then Paris, spent time in Geneva, Havana, Helsinki, Rome, Vienna and beyond. From these varied perches he wrote some of the most important novels and short stories of the 20th century. He also dispatched frequent letters and doodles to his friends. To read these missives in Sarah Moses and Anne McLean’s inspired translations is to hear a furious clacking at the keys, to be caught up in a spontaneous stampede (or rivulet, or sarabande) of thought. It’s also to eavesdrop on a community of significant artists. Cortázar wrote to Victoria Ocampo, Octavio Paz, Mario Vargas Llosa, Luis Buñuel, Carlos Fuentes, Alejandra Pizarnik, Jorge Luis Borges—to name them all would require lungs of steel. Throughout, Julio Cortázar responds to his friends’ work with meticulous honesty. His critical interpretations often open onto expansive ideas about the nature of art, or to exhilarating backflips of logic familiar to readers of his fiction.
In a letter to Ana María Barrenachea, Cortázar says a recent letter from her is “like a deep breath, full of sounds and things barely said and found movements . . . like a glass ball, something where reflections and murmurs and life are continually flashing through.” He could have been describing his own sensitive, jubilant writing. Open the book to any page and you’ll find Cortázar’s brilliant mind twinkling out.
A collection of letters by one of the greatest writers of the last hundred years, From Julio spans nearly three decades of Cortázar's life.
"He was, perhaps without trying, the Argentine who made the whole world love him."
— Gabriel García Márquez
Between 1937 and 1966, Julio Cortázar lived in ...
About the author
Julio Cortázar (1914-1984), was born in Brussels to Argentine parents, grew up in Buenos Aires from the age of four, and moved to Paris in 1951. From 1935 to 1945 he taught in secondary schools in several Argentine towns. From 1945 to 1951 he worked as a literary translator for Argentine publishing houses, translating the complete prose works of Edgar Allan Poe, as well as works by André Gide, Walter de la Mare, Daniel Defoe, and Jean Giono. He refused a chair at the University of Buenos Aires because of his opposition to the Perón regime, and moved to France, where he lived until his death.
Active in Latin American politics, he visited Cuba in 1961 and Nicaragua in 1983; he donated his Prix Médicis prize money for his novel Libro de Manuel to the United Chilean Front. During most of his years in France he worked for four months as a translator from French and English into Spanish for UNESCO and devoted the rest of the year to his writing and other loves such as the jazz trumpet. His works include Autonauts of the Cosmoroute, Hopscotch, Blow-Up and Other Stories, Diary of Andrés Fava, All Fires the Fire, From the Observatory, We Love Glenda So Much, A Certain Lucas, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds, and Cronopios and Famas.
Translator bios:
Anne McLean studied history in London, Ontario, and literary translation in London, England. She translates Latin American and Spanish novels, short stories, memoirs, and other writings by authors including Héctor Abad, Javier Cercas, Julio Cortázar, and Juan Gabriel Vásquez. Recent translations include Until August by Gabriel García Márquez (Knopf) and a co-translation with Victor Meadowcroft of Evelio Rosero’s Way Far Away (New Directions). She is based in Toronto.
Sarah Moses was born in Toronto in 1980. Moses's collection of short fiction, Strange Water, was published by 1366 Books/Guernica Editions in 2024. Her translations include Tender Is the Flesh, Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird, and The Unworthy, by Agustina Bazterrica. Die, My Love, by Ariana Harwicz, which was longlisted for the International Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Premio Valle Inclán, and the Best Translated Book Award. The film adaptation, by Lynne Ramsay, premiered in 2025. Her most recent publication is Diving Board by Tomás Downey.
Active in Latin American politics, he visited Cuba in 1961 and Nicaragua in 1983; he donated his Prix Médicis prize money for his novel Libro de Manuel to the United Chilean Front. During most of his years in France he worked for four months as a translator from French and English into Spanish for UNESCO and devoted the rest of the year to his writing and other loves such as the jazz trumpet. His works include Autonauts of the Cosmoroute, Hopscotch, Blow-Up and Other Stories, Diary of Andrés Fava, All Fires the Fire, From the Observatory, We Love Glenda So Much, A Certain Lucas, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds, and Cronopios and Famas.
Translator bios:
Anne McLean studied history in London, Ontario, and literary translation in London, England. She translates Latin American and Spanish novels, short stories, memoirs, and other writings by authors including Héctor Abad, Javier Cercas, Julio Cortázar, and Juan Gabriel Vásquez. Recent translations include Until August by Gabriel García Márquez (Knopf) and a co-translation with Victor Meadowcroft of Evelio Rosero’s Way Far Away (New Directions). She is based in Toronto.
Sarah Moses was born in Toronto in 1980. Moses's collection of short fiction, Strange Water, was published by 1366 Books/Guernica Editions in 2024. Her translations include Tender Is the Flesh, Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird, and The Unworthy, by Agustina Bazterrica. Die, My Love, by Ariana Harwicz, which was longlisted for the International Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Premio Valle Inclán, and the Best Translated Book Award. The film adaptation, by Lynne Ramsay, premiered in 2025. Her most recent publication is Diving Board by Tomás Downey.
Julio Cortázar (1914-1984), was born in Brussels to Argentine parents, grew up in Buenos Aires from the age of four, and moved to Paris in 1951. From 1935 to 1945 he taught in secondary schools in several Argentine towns. From 1945 to 1951 he worked as a literary translator for Argentine publishi...
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