Raimundo Lida (1908–1979) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

philologist, philosopher of language, literary critic and essayist. He specialised in

Romance Romance may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings ** Romantic orientation, the classification of the sex or gender with which a pers ...

philology, aesthetics, the literature of the

Spanish Golden Age The Spanish Golden Age (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Siglo de Oro'', , "Golden Century"; 1492 – 1681) was a period of literature and the The arts, arts in Spain that coincided with the political rise of the Spanish Empire under the Catholic M ...

and

modernist literature Modernist literature originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterised by a self-conscious separation from traditional ways of writing in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented with literary form a ...

. He taught at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

from 1953, where he was chair of the department of Romance Languages. The second of three children, his siblings were the

hematologist Hematology ( spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the production ...

Emilio Lida and

María Rosa Lida de Malkiel Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...

, also a philologist.

Life

Lida was born to a Jewish family in

Lemberg Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

, the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Ukraine). His parents took the family to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

when he was a few months old. The family spoke

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

as a first language, but the children became assimilated. There he grew up and received a wholly secular education. His older brother Emilio became a hematologist and his younger sister Maria Rosa Lida also became a philologist. In 1930 Lida became an Argentine citizen, after studying his high school at the Colegio Nacional Manuel Belgrano. He obtained a university degree in the Department of Philosophy and Literature at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

, where he graduated in 1931. He became a philologist under the influence of Amado Alonso, his teacher and mentor. His interest in philosophy was influenced by

Alejandro Korn Alejandro Korn (3 May 1860 – 9 October 1936) was an Argentine psychiatrist, philosopher, reformist and politician. For eighteen years, he was the director of the psychiatry hospital in Melchor Romero (a locality of La Plata in Buenos Aires). ...

and Francisco Romero. He gained his doctorate at the

with a dissertation on aesthetics and language of Santayana, published in book form in 1943, by the University of Tucumán Press. In 1931 he began working with Alonso and

Pedro Henríquez Ureña Pedro Henríquez Ureña (June 29, 1884 – May 11, 1946) was a Dominican essayist, philosopher, humanist, philologist and literary critic. Biography Early works Pedro Henríquez Ureña was born in Santo Domingo, the third of four siblings. He ...

at the Instituto de Filología, and was Assistant Editor of the "Revista de Filología Hiispánica". He also collaborated with

Victoria Ocampo Ramona Victoria Epifanía Rufina Ocampo (7 April 1890 – 27 January 1979) was an Argentine writer and intellectual. Best known as an advocate for others and as publisher of the literary magazine '' Sur'', she was also a writer and critic in he ...

in "Sur", and in other literary reviews. Lida taught aesthetics and literature at the

National University of La Plata The National University of La Plata (, UNLP) is a national public research university located in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It has over 90,000 regular students, 10,000 teaching staff, 17 departments and 10 ...

, and Literature at the Instituto Superior del Profesorado Secundario and at the Colegio Libre de Estudios Superiores, in Buenos Aires. In 1947, to escape the conditions under

Juan Peron ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philipp ...

, he took his family into exile in Mexico. He was invited by

Alfonso Reyes Alfonso Reyes Ochoa (17 May 1889 in Monterrey, Nuevo León – 27 December 1959 in Mexico City) was a Mexican writer, philosopher and diplomat. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times and has been acclaimed as one of the ...

El Colegio de México El Colegio de México, A.C. (commonly known as Colmex, English: The College of Mexico) is a Mexican institute of higher education, specializing in teaching and research in social sciences and humanities. The college was founded in 1940 by the Me ...

, where he founded the foremost scholarly journal, ''Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica'', and the Center for Linguistic and Literary Studies. In 1953, Lida succeeded his former professor Amado Alonso, who had been teaching at Harvard University since 1946. Lida became chair of the department of Romance Languages and held the Smith Chair. In addition to his own work, he published translations into Spanish of a range of scientific, philosophical and literary works, by such authors as

Moritz Geiger Moritz Geiger (26 June 1880 – 9 September 1937) was a German philosopher and a disciple of Edmund Husserl. He was a member of the Munich phenomenological school. Beside phenomenology, he dedicated himself to psychology, epistemology and aesthe ...

Karl Vossler Karl Vossler (6 September 1872 – 19 September 1949) was a German linguist and scholar, and a leading romance philologist. Vossler was known for his interest in Italian thought, and as a follower of Benedetto Croce. He declared his support of th ...

Helmut Hatzfeld Helmut is a German name. Variants include Hellmut, Helmuth, and Hellmuth. From old German, the first element deriving from either ''heil'' ("healthy") or ''hiltja'' ("battle"), and the second from ''muot'' ("spirit, mind, mood"). Helmut may refer ...

George Santayana George Santayana (born Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) was a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised and educated in the Un ...

W. Dilthey Wilhelm Dilthey (; ; 19 November 1833 – 1 October 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, and hermeneutic philosopher, who held Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's Chair in Philosophy at the University of Berlin. As a polymathi ...

and

Leo Spitzer Leo Spitzer (; 7 February 1887 – 16 September 1960) was an Austrian Romanist and Hispanist, philologist, and an influential and prolific literary critic. He was known for his emphasis on stylistics. Along with Erich Auerbach, Spitzer is wide ...

. In 1958 he became a naturalized US citizen.

Marriage and family

Lida married Leonor García (1908–1999) in 1935. They had two children: Fernando (b. 1936) and

Clara Lida Clara Eugenia Lida (Buenos Aires, December 27, 1941) is an Argentinian historian, well known for her work on social movements, anarchism and socialisms in the 19th century, and on Spanish emigration and Republican exile. First years Daughter of ...

(b. 1941), both born in Buenos Aires. They divorced after moving to the United States. He married a second time, to Denah Levy (1923–2007), a Spanish scholar at

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

. She wrote important works on

Benito Pérez Galdós Benito María de los Dolores Pérez Galdós (; 10 May 1843 – 4 January 1920) was a Spanish Spanish Realist literature, realist novelist. He was a leading literary figure in 19th-century Spain, and some scholars consider him second only to Mi ...

and a collection of

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

proverbs. Raimundo Lida died in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

in 1979.

Legacy and honors

*1939 and 1960,

Guggenheim fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

s *1954, honorary MA by Harvard University *1968, Smith Professor, Smith Chair, Harvard University *1970, elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

*1975, elected to the

Academia Argentina de Letras The Academia Argentina de Letras is the academy in charge of studying and prescribing the use of the Spanish language in Argentina. Since its establishment, on August 13, 1931, it has maintained ties with the Royal Spanish Academy and the other Spa ...

Works

*''Introducción a la estilística romance'', Buenos Aires, 1932. *With Amado Alonso, ''El impresionismo en el lenguaje'', Buenos Aires, 1936. *''El concepto lingüístico del impresionismo'', Buenos Aires, 1936. *With Amado Alonso, ''El español en Chile'', Buenos Aires, 1940. *''Belleza, arte y poesía en la estética de Santayana'', Tucumán, 1943. *''Letras hispánicas'', México, 1958 eed.: 1981 *''Condición del poeta'', Lima, 1961. *''Prosas de Quevedo'', Barcelona,1980. *''Rubén Darío. Modernismo'', Caracas, 1984. *''Estudios Hispánicos'', México, 1988. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lida 1908 births 1979 deaths 20th-century Argentine essayists 20th-century Argentine male writers 20th-century linguists 20th-century Argentine philosophers University of Buenos Aires alumni Literary critics of Spanish Argentine literary critics Argentine literary historians Historians of Spanish literature Argentine philologists Linguists from Argentina Jewish Argentine writers Jewish historians Jewish philosophers Argentine male writers Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to Argentina Philosophers of language 20th-century philologists Argentine Ashkenazi Jews Naturalized citizens of Argentina Yiddish-speaking people Naturalized citizens of the United States Writers from Buenos Aires