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Acknowledgments N umerous individuals have directly aided in the making of this book. To each and every one I wish to express my sincerest thanks. Different portions of the manuscript, in varying stages of its evolution, have been read by John Blegen of the State University of New York at Binghamton; by John Gliedman and Margery Resnick of Yale University; by Enrique Anderson-Imbert of Harvard University; by Morris Dickstein of Queens College and Partisan Review; and by Emile Capouya of The Nation and Baruch College, City University of New York. Last but not least, I must mention Malcolm L. Call, formerly of the University of North Carolina Press, who, by heeding my arguments during a critical moment, made this book possible. I also wish to thank Professor Michael Wood of Columbia University, who provided countless and indispensable editorial suggestions. Equally indispensable information, from every conceivable field of knowledge, was furnished by the indefatigable polymath, John Gliedman ; by James Irby of Princeton University, who kindly gave me access to his Ph.D. thesis (and also provided fine company and much appreciated hospitality); by Noreen Stack, Richard Nuccio, Brooke Larson, Sarah Roche-Gerstein, Glenn Yocum, John Stambaugh, and Marcella Mazzarelli, all of Williams College, and also by many students in my winter 1977 course on Borges; by Monique Tranchevent in Paris; by Professor Jean Franco of Stanford University; by Ronald Christ of Rutgers University and Review; by my mother, Carmen Villada Romero, of Albuquerque ; by Sylvia Corona and Eduardo Barraza, of Mexico City; and in particular by Katherine Singer Kovács of the University of Southern California and Steven Kovács of New World Cinema, whose joint efforts made my trip to Argentina fruitful beyond all expectations. In Mexico City, Jorge Aguilar Mora, Antonio Alatorre, Federico Campbell, and Noé Jitrik furnished letters of introduction and muchneeded encouragement. I owe to the warmth and hospitality of countless porteños the access I was given to numerous papers and to many people. Through all of them I was able to acquire some feeling for the nuances of literary and cultural life in Buenos Aires, without which this book would have been sadly incomplete . In this regard, I wish to thank Enrique Pezzoni of Editorial Sudamericana; Pablo Urbanyi of La Opinión; Señor Vecino of La Nación; Marı́a Esther Vázquez; Ana Marı́a Barrenechea; Martha Beisim; Raúl Santana; Renato Rita; Gloria Autino; Willy and Marı́a Inés Bouillon; Manuel Pantı́n (of Reuters) and his wife Emily; Mirta Robilotte and her lovely relatives; Eduardo Gudiño Kieffer; Liliana Zukierman; Charles Driskell; Kenneth Kemble; Armando and Inés Parodi; Alicia Parodi and her literature students at the University of Buenos Aires; Alberto Vanasco ; Fernando Lida; Jorge Lafforgue; Eduardo Irazábal (of Calicanto Editorial); the helpful employees of the Fulbright Commission; many casual strangers in cafés, restaurants, and taxis; and Señor Borges himself. I wish also to thank Williams College for providing research funds and airfare to Argentina; Lee Dalzell and Sarah McFarland of the College Library, for securing many necessary items through the interlibrary loan service; and Professor George Pistorius, chairman of the Department of Romance Languages, for his encouragement and advice. Finally I must express my deepest gratitude to two very special people: to the late Professor Raimundo Lida of Harvard University, whose lucid intellect, exigent standards, uncompromising rigor as scholar and teacher, and steady advice all helped me see beyond my then-youthful flaws, influencing my own development in the long process; and to my wife, Audrey, who aided in the shaping of this project in numerous places and countless ways, reading much material, furnishing discussion, and offering all manner of suggestions throughout many an afternoon and evening. To all these individuals I owe whatever strengths are to be found in this book. All the weaknesses are my own. G. B.-V. cambridge, massachusetts august 1979 xviii borges and his fiction ...

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