Gratitude of a Friendship: Publishing as a Gift

Interview with Eduardo Paz Leston by María Celia Vázquez and Manuela Barral (Buenos Aires, May 2023)

Abstract

Eduardo Paz Leston met Victoria Ocampo in 1953, when he was sixteen and she was sixty-three. Despite the age difference, they became friends, first by letters, and then de cuerpo presente in the classic tea with scons at Villa Ocampo. Much later, Paz Leston would be the compiler and editor of Victoria Ocampo's unpublished letters, first with the collection Cartas a Angélica and then with Cartas de Posguerra. He was also in charge of making a selection of the Testimonios to be published by Sudamericana when they were out of print. In this interview, he tells how he transformed the memory of that friendship into an important editorial work of recovery and diffusion of Victoria Ocampo's work.