Among the Sheridan Libraries’ burgeoning holdings in Latin American literature, this first edition of Jorge Luis Borges’ (1899-1986) first book of poetry, Fervor de Buenos Aires, may be the crown jewel. It is one of only sixteen copies known in public collections, out of an original print run of 300.

Published in 1923, this unassuming little book comprises forty-six poems in deeply incisive and personal free verse that heralded Borges’ rise as the Argentine poet par excellence and helped to inspire the Latin American “Boom” movement in turn.

Apart from its scarcity and importance as a literary work, this copy is exceptional for its provenance. It was owned by José Robles Pazos (1897-1937), who was a Johns Hopkins professor of Spanish from 1920 until his mysterious death in the Spanish Civil War. Robles dedicated this copy to friend and novelist John Dos Passos (1896-1970) in an inscription that likens the Fervor de Buenos Aires to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, published just one year earlier.

Conservation Treatment

Remove from the current binding, mend the paper as needed, re-sew, rebind using conservation-grade materials and structure, and create custom housing.