Literary memoirs

"Novelist, scholar, journalist, statesman, and leading Member of Chile's "Generation of 1842" - an intellectual movement so named for the founding of the National University - Jose Victorino Lastarria (1811-1888) lived his life at the forefront of nineteenth-century Chilean and Spanish-American culture, literature, and politics. Recuerdos Literarios (or Literary Memoirs) is his masterpiece, encompassing the candid memories of a tireless activist, both the creative and critical sensibilities of an influential Latin American early modernist, and an eyewitness account of the development of Chilean literature and historiography. An ardent, eloquent participant in every defining artistic and ideological debate in Chile during the formative mid-1800s. Lastarria recorded his epoch as closely as he did his own origins, education, ambitions, and career."--BOOK JACKET.