1
The biographical data are derived chiefly from Mallea's works, especially Historia de una pasión argentina, and from Guillermo Díaz-Plaja, «Meditación sobre lo argentino en la novela», Boletín de la Academia Argentina de Letras, XIX (1950), 177-209; Sixto C. Martelli, «Un escritor de 1900, o una generación argentina responsable», Atenea, no. 178 (1940), 142-148; and Juan Pinto, Panorama de la literatura argentina contemporánea (Buenos Aires: Mundi, 1941), pp. 239-241. Pinto differs from all other sources regarding the year of Mallea's birth, and Díaz-Plaja gives some erroneous dates of publication.
2
Mallea seems to take great pride in his family. In El sayal y la púrpura (Buenos Aires: Losada, 1947), p. 213, he addresses his brother as follows: «Tu primer antecesor americano no vino aquí de los aires: venía de España; y era un alférez de Indias, actor de la Conquista. Ya sé que lo sabes y cuando miras a los vociferantes de última hora tu boca joven sonríe».
3
The most extensive description of this aspect of Mallea's childhood is given in the first chapters of Historia de una pasión argentina, though reflections are found in other works. For example, Mario Guillén, of Los enemigos del alma, also attended a foreign colegio.
4
Historia de una pasión argentina (5th ed.; Buenos Aires: Espasa-Calpe Argentina, 1951), p. 37. Mallea's name will be omitted in references to his works.
5
Ibid., pp. 28-29.
6
Díaz-Plaja, op. cit., p. 184: «No tengo noticia de que en su circuito europeo arribase a nuestra tierra». See, however, María Elisa Ulloa, «Mallea's Argentina: River Plate Novelist Looks at his Country», Américas, VII (1955), 29.
7
For historical data in chapter i, see F. A. Kirkpatrick, A History of the Argentine Republic (Cambridge, England: University Press, 1931), pp. 188-226; and Ysabel F. Rennie, The Argentine Republic (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1945), pp. 181-228, 258-307, 339-376.
8
Historia de una pasión argentina, p. 24.
9
Nocturno europeo (Buenos Aires: Anaconda, 1938), p. 126. In Historia de una pasión argentina, p. 14, Mallea writes: «Yo no puedo enseñar, yo no puedo -ni quiero- obligar ningún pensamiento, yo no puedo instruir; quisiera, tan sólo, conmover; es decir, mover conmigo» (italicized in the text). The term «agonista» as used by Mallea is of Unamunesque origin; and the use of etymology for emphasis of a concept is typical of Unamuno.
10
Since the preparation of this study, Mallea has published his longest novel to date, Simbad (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1957). This work does not cause me to modify any of my statements or conclusions.