Mercedes Rein

Mercedes Rein (19 November 1930 – 31 December 2006 ) was a Uruguayan writer, translator, and dramatist.

Biography Mercedes Rein was a Professor of Literature in Secondary Education. In 1955 she earned a travel scholarship to the University of Hamburg to study philosophy and letters. She was also an assistant of Hispano-American Literature at the University of the Republic's Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, a position from which she was dismissed by the dictatorship.

In 1956 she became a contributor to the newspaper Marcha, where she intermittently performed literary and theatrical criticism. Rein was one of the members of the jury, along with Juan Carlos Onetti and Jorge Ruffinelli, of the weekly's fateful short story contest, for which Onetti, she, and the author of the story "El guardaespaldas", , were imprisoned in 1974.

Rein was part of the independent theater movement. Her play El herrero y la muerte, written with Jorge Curi, was on the bill for more than six years at the . Juana de Asbaje (1993) won her the Florencio Award for the best play of the year.

As a narrator, her disturbing Zoologismos (1967) stands out. With its delirious and obsessive invasion of ghostly presences, it is perhaps the most accomplished of her narrative output. She was also responsible for the lyrics of several songs by Jorge Lazaroff.

As a teacher, in her essay work, in addition to academic works on the German philosopher Ernst Cassirer and the writers Julio Cortázar and Nicanor Parra, there are also some simple manuals of pedagogical design.

Mercedes Rein was a contributor to the weekly Brecha and a member of the Academia Nacional de Letras.

Works Literature Zoologismos (short stories, , Montevideo, 1967) Casa vacía (novel, Arca, Montevideo, 1984) Bocas de tormenta (novel, Arca, Montevideo, 1987) Blues de los domingos (short stories, Arca, Montevideo, 1990) El archivo de Soto (historical novel, Trilce, Montevideo, 1993) Marea Negra (novel, Planeta, 1996) La máquina de trinar (poetry, Editorial Libros de la Academia, Montevideo, 2007)

Theater La balada de los años cuerdos (children's theater, 1964) El herrero y la muerte (with Jorge Curi, 1981) Entre gallos y medias noches (with Jorge Curi) Juana de Asbaje (1993, Florencio Award for best play of the year) Misia Urraca (children's theater)

Essays Ernst Cassirer y la filosofía del lenguaje (FHC, University of the Republic, Montevideo, 1959) A propósito de Vallejo y algunas dificultades para conocer la poesía (1966) Julio Cortázar, el escritor y sus máscaras (Diaco, 1969) Nicanor Parra y la antipoesía (University of the Republic, Montevideo, 1971) Cortázar y Carpentier (Editorial Crisis, Buenos Aires, 1974) La generación del 98 (Editorial Técnica, Montevideo, 1974) Introducción a la poesía de Alberto Machado (Editorial Técnica, 1974) Florencio Sánchez, su vida y su obra (Casa del Estudiante, 1975)