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Page 1 of 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Kodama
Maria Kodama
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Mara Kodama
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mara Kodama Schweitzer (born on March 10, 1937) is the widow
of Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges and sole owner of his estate
after his death in 1986. Borges had bequeathed to Kodama his rights
as author in a will written in 1979, when she was his literary
secretary, and bequeathed to her his whole estate in 1985. They were
married in 1986, shortly before the death of Borges.
[1]
Kodama is the daughter of a Japanese father and a German mother.
She met Borges when she was a student, at one of his lectures in
Buenos Aires on Icelandic literature.
After the death in 1975 of Borges's ninety-nine-year-old mother, with
whom he had lived all his life, Kodama became Borgess literary secretary and had the opportunityat the
invitation of Borges's caretaker, "Fanny"to assist him as a blind old man in his frequent travels abroad
during his later years, when he received many invitations by institutions from around the world. Kodama
helped Borges write, as he had lost his sight. She collaborated with him in Breve antologa anglosajona
(1978) and Atlas (1984, an account of their travels together) and in the translation of the Younger Edda by
Snorri Sturluson.
Kodama married Borges through representatives in a civil proceeding in Paraguay on April 26, 1986. This
was a common practice for Argentines wishing to circumvent the restrictions on divorce in their country at
the time, and Borges was already married once but for many years estranged from his rst wife. At the time
of the wedding, Borges was terminally ill, and died of cancer in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 14, 1986.
She is president of the Fundacin Internacional Jorge Luis Borges, which she founded in Buenos Aires in
1988.
After Borges's death, Kodama renegotiated the English translation rights of his works. In particular, she
terminated a longstanding agreement between Borges and the translator Norman Thomas di Giovanni under
which royalties for a number of translations on which they collaborated were divided equally between author
and translator. New translations by Andrew Hurley were commissioned and published to replace the di
Giovanni translations, which were allowed to go out of print.
[2]
Kodama's assertive administration of the Borges estate also resulted in a bitter dispute with the French
publisher Gallimard regarding the republication of the complete works of Borges in French, with Pierre
Assouline in Le Nouvel Observateur (August 2006) calling her "an obstacle to the dissemination of the
works of Borges." Kodama took legal action against Assouline, considering the remark unjustied and
defamatory, asking for a symbolic compensation of one euro.
[3][4][5]
External links
Fundacin Internacional Jorge Luis Borges
(http://www.fundacionborges.com/)
03/08/2014 22:39 Mara Kodama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Page 2 of 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Kodama
Kodama.
Notes
1. ^ Who is Maria Kodama - The widow, the chosen, the guardian.
(http://old.clarin.com/suplementos/cultura/2006/10/07/u-01285316.htm) Biographical article on Kodama in the
Argentine newspaper Clarin, Oct. 7, 2006 (in Spanish).
2. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/feb/19/jorge-luis-borges-di-giovanni
3. ^ http://edant.revistaenie.clarin.com/notas/2008/05/14/01671869.html
4. ^ http://edant.revistaenie.clarin.com/notas/2008/05/15/01672570.html
5. ^ (Spanish) Octavi Mart, Kodama frente a Borges, El Pas (Madrid), Edicin Impresa, 16 August 2006. Abstract
online (http://www.elpais.es/articulo/revista/agosto/Kodama/frente/Borges/elpporcul/20060816elpepirdv_1/Tes); full
text accessible online by subscription only.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mara_Kodama&oldid=601563893"
Categories: Argentine writers Argentine translators 1937 births Argentine people of Japanese descent
Living people People from Buenos Aires Argentine people of German descent Jorge Luis Borges
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