52 Facts About Horacio Quiroga

Horacio Silvestre Quiroga Forteza was a Uruguayan playwright, poet, and short story writer.

In turn, Quiroga influenced Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Julio Cortazar.

Horacio Quiroga was born in the city of Salto in 1878 as the sixth child and second son of Prudencio Quiroga and Pastora Forteza, a middle-class family.

Horacio Quiroga was baptized three months later in the parish church of his native town.

Horacio Quiroga studied at the National College and attended the Polytechnic Institute of Montevideo for technical training.

At the age of 22, Horacio Quiroga became interested in poetry, discovering the work of Leopoldo Lugones, with whom he would later become great friends, and of Edgar Allan Poe.

Horacio Quiroga soon began to publish his poems in his home town.

However, the young girl's Jewish parents disapproved of the relationship on the grounds that Horacio Quiroga was a Gentile, and the couple were forced to separate.

On his return Horacio Quiroga gathered together his friends Federico Ferrando, Alberto Brignole, Julio Jaureche, Fernandez Saldana, Jose Hasda and Asdrubal Delgado, and with them founded the Consistorio del Gay Saber, a literary laboratory for their experimental writing, in which they found new ways to express themselves and their modernist goals.

In 1901 Horacio Quiroga published his first book, Los Arrecifes de Coral, but the achievement was overshadowed by the deaths of two of his siblings, Prudencio and Pastora, who were victims of typhoid fever in Chaco Province.

The police investigated the circumstances of the homicide and deemed Ferrando's death an accident; Horacio Quiroga was released after four days' detention.

Horacio Quiroga crossed the Rio de la Plata in 1902 and went to live with Maria, one of his sisters.

Horacio Quiroga was appointed professor of Spanish at the British School of Buenos Aires in March 1903.

The jungle of Misiones left a profound impression on Horacio Quiroga that marked his life forever: he spent six months and the last of his inheritance on some land for cotton in Chaco Province, located seven kilometers from Resistencia, next to the Saladito River.

The project failed, due to problems with his aboriginal workers, but Horacio Quiroga's life was enriched by experiencing life as a countryman for the first time.

Horacio Quiroga's narrative benefited from his new knowledge of country people and rural culture; this permanently changed his style.

Horacio Quiroga did not mind these early comparisons with Poe, and until the end of his life, he would often say that Poe was his first and principal teacher.

Horacio Quiroga worked for the next two years on a multitude of stories, many were about rural terror, but others were delightful stories for children.

Shortly after it was published, Horacio Quiroga became famous and his writings were eagerly sought by thousands of readers.

In 1906 Horacio Quiroga decided to return to his beloved jungle.

Horacio Quiroga fell in love with one of his teenage students, Ana Maria Cires, to whom he would dedicate his first novel, entitled History of a Troubled Love.

Horacio Quiroga insisted on the relationship despite the opposition of her parents, eventually garnering their permission to marry her and take her to live in the jungle with him.

Horacio Quiroga's parents-in-law were concerned about the risks of living in Misiones, a wild region, and that is why they decided to join their daughter and son-in-law, and live close by in order to help them.

Horacio Quiroga decided, as soon as the children could walk, that he would personally take care of their upbringing.

Stern and dictatorial, Horacio Quiroga demanded that every little detail be done according to his requirements.

Horacio Quiroga exposed them to danger so that they would be able to cope alone and overcome any situation.

Horacio Quiroga even went so far as to leave them alone at night in the jungle, or make them sit on the edge of a cliff with their legs dangling into the void.

Horacio Quiroga's daughter learned to breed wild animals and the son to use a shotgun, ride a motorbike and travel alone in a canoe.

Horacio Quiroga began to distill oranges and produce coal and resins, as well as many other similar activities.

Literature continued to be the peak of his life: in the journal Fray Mocho de Buenos Aires Horacio Quiroga published numerous stories, many set in the jungle and populated by characters so naturalistic that they seemed real.

Horacio Quiroga collected most of the stories in several books, the first was Tales of Love, Madness and Death.

Horacio Quiroga dedicated this book to his children, who accompanied him during that rough period of poverty in the damp basement.

In 1919, Horacio Quiroga was twice promoted in the consular ranks.

Horacio Quiroga had published his latest collection of stories, The Wild.

The next year, following the idea of "The Consistory", Horacio Quiroga founded the Anaconda Association, a group of intellectuals involved in cultural activities in Argentina and Uruguay.

Between 1922 and 1924, Horacio Quiroga served as secretary of a cultural embassy to Brazil and he published his new book: The Desert.

Horacio Quiroga worked as a film critic for a time and wrote the screenplay for a feature film, The Florida Raft, that was never realized.

Horacio Quiroga was in love again, this time with a 22-year-old Ana Maria Palacio.

Horacio Quiroga tried to persuade her parents to let her go to live in the jungle with him.

Horacio Quiroga's home was on the water and he used the boat to go from San Ignacio downriver to Buenos Aires and on numerous river expeditions.

In early 1926, Horacio Quiroga returned to Buenos Aires and rented a villa in a suburban area.

Horacio Quiroga tirelessly read technical texts, manuals on mechanics, and books on arts and physics.

In 1927, Horacio Quiroga decided to raise and domesticate wild animals, while publishing his new book of short stories, Exiles.

In 1932 Horacio Quiroga again settled in Misiones, where he would retire, with his wife and third daughter.

Horacio Quiroga was devoted to living quietly in the jungle with his wife and daughter.

From his interest in the work of Munthe and Ibsen, Horacio Quiroga began reading new authors and styles and began planning his autobiography.

Horacio Quiroga heeded his wife's advice and consulted doctors in Posadas, who diagnosed him with prostate hypertrophy.

Horacio Quiroga separated from his second wife, who left along with their youngest daughter back to Buenos Aires.

When Horacio Quiroga was in the emergency ward, he had learned that a patient was shut up in the basement with hideous deformities similar to those of Joseph Merrick.

Horacio Quiroga disclosed his plan to commit suicide to Batistessa, who offered to help.

Horacio Quiroga's body was buried in the grounds of the Casa del Teatro de la Sociedad Argentina de Escritores, of which he was the founder and vice-president, although his remains were later repatriated to his homeland.

Horacio Quiroga was inspired by British writer Rudyard Kipling, which is shown in his own Jungle Tales.