Orphée, Elvira (1930–)

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Orphée, Elvira (1930–)

Elvira Orphée is an Argentine writer. Born in San Miguel de Tucumán, she grew up in Tucumán and Buenos Aires. She suffered from health problems as a child, an experience from which she drew frequently to build her fictional world.

Orphée published her first collection of short stories, Dos veranos (Two Summers), in 1956. In 1961 she published Uno, a novel, followed by Aire tan dulce (1966; When the Air is Soft), which is considered her best work for its innovative language and her treatment of love and hate. En el fondo (1969; At the Bottom) received the first Municipal Prize for the Novel. In 1973 she published a collection of short stories, Su demonio preferido (His Preferred Devil), followed in 1977 by La última conquista de El Angel (El Angel's Last Conquest), a novel in episodes whose main character is a member of the Buenos Aires secret police in charge of torture and abuse of political prisoners. Later works include Las viejas fantasiosas (1981; The Old Ladies' Tales); La muerte y los desencuentros (1990; The Death and the Separation); Ciego de cielo (1990; Blind of Heaven), a collection of short stories that deal with justice; and Basura y luna (1996; Garbage and Moon).

See alsoLiterature: Spanish America .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Orphée, Elvira. El Angel's Last Conquest. Translated by Magda Bogin. New York: Ballantine Books, 1985.

Additional Bibliography

Pellerin, Gilles, and Oscar Hermes Villordo. Encuentros: Escritores y artistas de la Argentina y Quebec. Quebec: Editions Sans Nom, 1989.

                               Magdalena GarcÍa Pinto