Leopold Lugones - Selected Writings

His prose works include La Guerra Gaucha (1905) and the essay El Payador (1916) in which he idealized the gaucho as a heroic figure, popular poet, and a symbol of Argentine identity. Lugones altered his political views many times, adopting radical anarchism, and later in life, fascism. He was therefore a controversial figure, both accalimed and scorned by his contemporaries. His adherence to the importance of literary form drew criticism from the new generation of writers, such as Borges, but Borges later stated in 1955 that "Lugones was and continues to be the greatest Argentine writer."