Princeton University Library is pleased to announce that the papers of Salvador Elizondo, one of Mexico’s most innovative writers and a defining voice of twentieth-century avant-garde literature, are now available for research in Firestone Library’s Special Collections.

Born in Mexico City in 1932, Elizondo produced poetry, fiction, and literary essays of remarkable formal ambition. His writing is often described as probing the limits of language, identity, and perception, drawing on metafiction, philosophical inquiry, and experimental narrative structures. His most influential works include Farabeuf o la crónica de un instante (1965), El hipogeo secreto (1968), El grafógrafo (1972), and Camera lucida (1982).

Other notable works by Elizondo include Poemas (1960), Luchino Visconti (1963), Narda o el verano (1966), Autobiografía (1966), Cuaderno de escritura (1969), El retrato de Zoe y otras mentiras (1969), Contextos (1973), Museo poético (1974), Antología personal (1974), Elsinore: un cuaderno (1988), Teoría del infierno (1992), and Estanquillo (1993). In 1990, Elizondo was awarded the Premio Nacional de Letras for the entirety of his literary work.

Beyond his literary production, Elizondo played a central role in Mexico’s cultural and intellectual life. He co-founded and edited the magazines S. Nob. and Nuevo Cine, and contributed to Plural, Vuelta, Siempre!, Positif, and Revista de la Universidad de México, among many others. A member of El Colegio Nacional and the Mexican Academy of Language, he taught for more than two decades at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His many honors include Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships and the National Prize for Arts and Sciences (1990). He also translated works by Paul Valéry, Thomas De Quincey, Malcolm Lowry, Georges Bataille, and other authors. Elizondo died in Mexico City on March 29, 2006.

The archival collection, Documentos de Salvador Elizondo, 1945–2006, includes diaries, annotated drafts, manuscripts, and personal correspondence, as well as scrapbooks created by Elizondo that gather cultural ephemera from the 1960s and 1970s. The collection also contains scrapbooks compiled by photographer Paulina Lavista between 1978 and 2024, documenting critical reception of Elizondo’s work and the continuing impact of his literary legacy. Researchers, students, and members of the public are welcomed to consult the collection at Princeton University Library’s Special Collections.

For an overview of Salvador Elizondo’s life and work, consult his entry in the Enciclopedia de la Literatura en México, available at http://www.elem.mx/autor/datos/318.