José María Eguren
José María Eguren was a notable Peruvian poet, born on July 7, 1874, in Lima, to a wealthy family. Throughout his childhood, he battled ill health, which led him to spend significant time in rural settings, profoundly influencing his poetic themes that often reflect nostalgia and the natural environment. His education began at a local Jesuit school but was interrupted by his illnesses, limiting his formal schooling. Despite these challenges, he cultivated a deep love for literature and art, drawing inspiration from a diverse range of writers, including Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe.
Eguren published only three books during his lifetime and produced over twenty theoretical essays on art and literature. He remained a reclusive figure, never marrying, and faced financial difficulties later in life, prompting him to work as a librarian. His artistic contributions and poetry were largely unrecognized during his lifetime, but after his death in April 1942, his work gained appreciation among scholars and critics. While some viewed him as socially naïve due to his seclusion, others argue that his withdrawal was a deliberate rejection of the societal norms of his time, reflecting a thoughtful critique of contemporary values.
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José María Eguren
Writer
- Born: July 7, 1874
- Birthplace: Lima, Peru
- Died: April 19, 1942
- Place of death: Lima, Peru
Biography
José María Eguren was born on July 7, 1874, in Lima, Peru, to wealthy parents José María Eguren y Cáceda and Eulalia Rodríguez Hercelles Eguren. Because he was sickly, Eguren spent his childhood at the family’s country estates, Chuquitanta and Pro, hoping to get well. He became particularly attached to three of his eight siblings: older brother Jorge and sisters Angélica and Susana. His brother Jorge had an extremely positive effect on Eguren’s education as well as his creativity.
Eguren spent considerable time relaxing in the farms and in the open countryside, and the influence of the natural world is repeatedly expressed in his nostalgic poetry. It is understandable that his description and detail would focus on the impressions he formed during his illness and during his attempts to recover from it. He got a late start at the local Jesuit school, Colegio la Immaculada, and his time there was cut short because he was too sick to finish. He rarely met women, and when he did they were short-term vacationers who engaged in equally short-term relationships with the reclusive poet and painter. He never married, and by the 1920’s his family fortune had dwindled, forcing him to leave his home in Barranco, move in with friends (and later into his own small hovel), and take a post as librarian in the library and museum of the Ministry of Public Education. Meanwhile, his health continued to decline.
Eguren’s education, reading repertoire, painting, and poetry writing did not decline, however, though he published only three books during his sixty-eight years. He read often and in quantity, and took an interest in writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe. He published in reviews and magazines, wrote over twenty theoretical essays on art and literature, and painted often and with enough talent that when he faced financial downfall in 1926, his friends offered to solicit and encourage the purchase of his collection by Casa Columbia, an independently supported art and poetry house.
After he died in April of 1942, the publishers came to call, sharing his posthumously printed works with a more appreciative audience.Nevertheless, the reclusive Eguren is still often mistakenly considered naïve and socially unaware because he was isolated for most of his life. Still, more adept scholars and critics have identified the author’s autonomous hermitage as one that was consciously chosen by a person who was not unsuitable for social life, as scholar James Higgins maintained, but who intentionally rejected the hypocrisy, cruelty, and deleterious values of his contemporaries.