María Elena Walsh (, 1 February 1930 – 10 January 2011) was an Argentine poet, novelist, musician, playwright, writer and composer, mainly known for her songs and books for children. Her work includes many of the most popular children's books and songs of all time in her home country.
Biography
Early years (1930–1944)
María Elena Walsh was born on 1 February 1930 in a house at 547 Calle 3 de Febrero in Villa Sarmiento, Morón, Greater Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Province, as the second daughter of the second marriage of Enrique Roberto Walsh (1882–1947), a railway employee of Irish descent who played the piano, from Brandsen, and Lucía Elena Monsalvo (1895–1961), a housewife from Merlo, of Spanish descent. Her father was a widower and had five children from a previous marriage to María Maroñón: Carlos, Zulema, Mario, Arturo and Enrique. Her sister was Susana Beatriz Walsh (1925–2000), known as "Babe", with whom she had a difficult relationship throughout her life.
As a child, she lived in a big house, where she greatly enjoyed reading and listening to music in a cultural environment. The Walsh family belonged to the educated middle class. Her paternal grandparents were British and had migrated to Argentina in 1872, while her maternal grandparents were Andalusian and Creole. Her grandmother Agnes Hoare (1852–1898), from London, married an Irishman, David Walsh, and had a notable influence on her life, particularly through the letters she left behind, which were later compiled in her book Novios de antaño (1990). María Elena described her as "a great reader... she became desperate when she did not receive the newspaper from England. Those letters revealed to me that she was tremendously interested in Argentine politics at the time." From English popular culture, María Elena adopted the habit of entertaining herself in her early years with nursery rhymes and traditional children's verses sung to her by her father, such as "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Humpty Dumpty", and developed the habit of verbal constructions that characterize British nonsense, one of the main sources of inspiration in her work.
Walsh learned to read and write at the early age of four thanks to the teaching of a neighbour. She was also influenced by classical music and opera. Her father often played the piano, especially waltzes by Moszkowski, Waldteufel and Toselli, and the young Walsh was particularly attracted to the music halls shown in neighbourhood cinemas. She defined herself at that time as a "rather difficult, unruly" child who felt "very lonely, melancholic, and suddenly abrupt, sullen". The authoritarianism and severity that her father showed toward her mother marked Walsh's lifelong defence of women.
Walsh entered General Manuel Belgrano Primary School No. 21 at the age of seven and joined third grade directly because she already knew how to read and write. She showed interest in subjects such as Spanish, dictation, calligraphy and drawing, and in her leisure time enjoyed playing statues, tag and trading cards. In literature, Walsh read works by Jules Verne, Charles Dickens and Saturnino Calleja, as well as magazines such as El Tony, Pif Paf and Billiken. In entertainment, she admired Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy.
The expansion of the neighbouring La Chapelle asylum and the culverting of the Maldonado Stream led the Walsh family to move in 1943 to a more modest house on Calle Gaona in Ramos Mejía, which she would describe decades later as "the end of childhood". At the age of 12, in order to perfect her knowledge of painting and drawing, she enrolled on her own initiative at the , where her teachers included Fernán Félix de Amador, Hernán Lavalle Cobo, Luis Borraro and Tilda Thamar. Her father distrusted that institution and had instead previously suggested Technical School No. 6 Fernando Fader. The atmosphere of the school was deeply affected after the 1943 Argentine coup d'état, which was reflected in Walsh's earliest writings. Years later, she graduated as a teacher of drawing and painting.
First publications and Otoño imperdonable (1945–1947)
In 1945, at the age of 15, she published her first poem, titled Elegía, in the magazine El Hogar, illustrated by her schoolmate Elba Fábregas, with whom she had an intimate relationship and to whom Walsh dedicated a poem in Otoño imperdonable, which was her first book, a collection of poems published in 1947, before graduating from art school. It was critically acclaimed and received recognition from important Latin American writers. The psychiatric illness later diagnosed in Fábregas deeply affected Walsh. Walsh also published poems in the La Nación newspaper. Fábregas had advised her to speak with Augusto González Castro, an Ecuadorian poet who worked as editorial secretary of El Hogar, and who decided to give her an opportunity. Following Elegía, her verses began to be published every month, giving Walsh relative financial independence and the possibility of becoming a poet, which translated into a form of rebellion and rejection of the social conventions of her time. In 1946, Walsh, then 16 years old, published Oda del estudiante muerto in La Vanguardia, the socialist newspaper of Juan B. Justo, where she expressed her outrage over a strike in which two students had died. Many of the poems published in El Hogar and La Nación later formed the core of her first book, Otoño imperdonable (1947), for which she received the second municipal prize. From then on, she began to associate regularly with the Hispanic American literary world. According to her biographer Alicia Dujovne, "Buenos Aires went crazy" with the publication of her first book of poems, while Sergio Pujol noted that "her first verses were crossed by melancholy and the pain of a poetic 'I' that lives with emotion and in contact with nature through a series of absences". She befriended Jorge Vocos Lescano, Mario Trejo, León Bouché—the director of El Hogar—Hugo Lezama, Horacio Armani, Roberto Juarroz, Horacio Rega Molina, Ricardo Molinari, Francisco Luis Bernárdez, María Alicia Domínguez and María Granata. She also attended literary gatherings at the Jockey Club, the hall of the Peuser bookshop, the Richmond confectionery and the Van Riel Gallery.
Walsh had tried to publish her first book through Editorial Emecé, which she reached through a letter of recommendation from Eduardo Mallea—who directed the literary supplement of La Nación, where Walsh contributed—but for economic reasons the publisher refused to undertake the edition. Finally, after several failed attempts, she decided to publish it herself and finance it personally. Five hundred copies were printed, which at first were distributed in bookshops in Ramos Mejía and on Florida Street. Walsh left the copies on consignment, accompanied by her friend Mario Trejo, and later collected the commissions. The largest payments came from the Society for the Protection of Popular Libraries, which purchased copies at retail price. On one occasion she even met Pablo Neruda, who invited her up to a small apartment in the Galería Güemes, where he hosted all kinds of artists. Neruda read her book and made complimentary comments about it. In this regard, Dujovne commented that "great figures praise the author, but the author keeps looking at them pensively", and added: "She was still at the moment of hollowing out her voice. Otoño imperdonable is an extraordinary pretentious book, lacking the little bells of grace that in the next room sprang from the author like gentle, natural water."
A review in La Nación stated:
Eduardo González Lanuza of Sur commented: "What relief and what oasis-like happiness there is in this certainty of poetry, whose freshness overflows from the fullness of this small book by María Elena Walsh", and regarding the poem Esencia, added: "Who has revealed to her our terrible relationship with poetry?" One of the most complimentary reviews came from Javier Fernández of the weekly Ética: "She is a poet of classical spirit, in the sense of a sober and reflective creator, free from sudden intoxications or pompous dazzlements. If we wished to seek—an old mania—some literary affiliation in María Elena Walsh, we should recognize a beautiful example of multiple and rich assimilations... That transcendent flash of Saint John of the Cross. The sorrowful dreaminess of Antonio Machado. The hazy charm of ancient ballads and an atmosphere pleasing to the spirits of Coleridge and Wordsworth. Let us emphasize: there is no imitation; there is transfiguration."
After the favourable reviews, Walsh developed a friendship with Fernández that consisted of sporadic telephone calls, frequent visits, exchanges and loans of books, and later trips to the diplomatic offices where Fernández carried out his professional life. The architect Carmen Córdova Iturburu also read the book and contacted Walsh by mail, beginning a long friendship.
Juan Ramón Jiménez and trip to Maryland (1948–1949)
After graduation in 1948, she traveled to North America at the invitation of poet Juan Ramón Jiménez. Communist intellectuals enjoyed enormous prestige in the postwar period after the defeat of fascism. In that context, numerous writers visited Argentina, including Pablo Neruda, Jorge Guillén and León Felipe. The poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, author of Platero y yo, had been "amazed by her expression, her naturalness in the simple and the difficult" after reading Walsh's book. Determined to award scholarships each year to two young people and receive them at his home in Maryland, the offer was directed to Horacio Armani, Carmen Córdova and Walsh, who stood out as major young promises of Argentine poetry. The first two, unable to make the trip for personal reasons, did not accept. Walsh, meanwhile, tried to collect a municipal prize she had won for the book, but was told that the money would not be available soon. Finally, she received a scholarship from the Williams Foundation of the United States Embassy, intended to encourage stays in North America by people connected to science, culture or education, which enabled her to pay for her passage. The five-month stay was very important for Walsh, who regularly attended concerts, shows, museums and exhibitions, and allowed her to connect with American culture, especially with consumer society. However, living with Jiménez and his wife Zenobia Camprubí was not easy for her, and she ended up feeling great personal frustration. In later interviews, Walsh stated that "if Juan Ramón was capable of exerting such a profound influence, it was because I was very impressionable and was placing in him a series of perhaps mistaken expectations. Perhaps I expected a kind and affable teacher, not a figure who could be so categorical and aggressive." Despite this negative aspect, through Jiménez, Walsh met Ezra Pound and Pedro Salinas, and learned from his literary art. Jiménez insisted that she take university courses and seminars in the United States, but Walsh declined because of her language difficulties and aversion to formal education. Instead, she preferred to attend the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on her own, where she discovered authors such as Emily Dickinson and Amy Lowell.
It was a complex experience, because Jiménez treated her mercilessly, without any consideration for her needs and personal inclinations. When her savings ran out, Walsh had to give private Spanish lessons to support herself financially. María Elena herself would describe the experience a few years later in these terms:
Return to Buenos Aires and Baladas con Ángel (1950–1952)