Torres Bodet, Jaime

Torres Bodet, Jaime (hī`mā tôr`rās bôdĕt`), 1902–74, Mexican poet, diplomat, short-story writer, and essayist. Torres Bodet's first book of poems, Fervor (1918), reveals the influence of symbolism and modernismo, but his later poetry shows the effect of the European avant-garde and is cosmopolitan in tone. His outstanding early poems were collected in Poesías (1926). Sin tregua (1957) and Selected Poems (bilingual ed. 1964) contain later verse. Narratives collected in Margarita de niebla (1927), Proserpina rescatada (1931), and Nacimiento de Venus (1941) reveal his refined, erudite playfulness. Contemporáneos (1938) and Tres inventores de realidad (1955) contain some of his major critical essays. Torres Bodet has held many important government posts.

Bibliography

See study by S. Karsen (1971).

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Torres Bodet, Jaime

(born April 17, 1902, Mexico City, Mex.—died May 13, 1974, Mexico City) Mexican poet, novelist, educator, and statesman. He held various diplomatic and government posts, including minister of public education (1943–46) and foreign minister (1946–48). His verse, which early on revealed the influence of Modernismo, often returned to the themes of loneliness, a search for identity, and a longing for death. Cripta (1937) is considered to include his most important poems. His poetry was collected in Obra poética (1967). Of six novels published between 1927 and 1937, Sombras (1937) is considered his best. Afflicted by cancer, he took his own life.