) was a best-selling Argentine novelist, as well as an accomplished journalist, translator and screenwriter.

Life and work

Silvina Bullrich was born to Rafael Bullrich (1877–1944), a distinguished Argentine cardiologist and Dean of the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires

University of Buenos Aires

The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 faculties, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos...

 and to María Laura Meyrelles de Bullrich. The second of three sisters, she was raised in a privileged background; despite the conservative Dr. Bullrich's disapproval, her mother occupied her free time introducing her daughters to classic literature and, unhappily married, frequently traveled with them to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where Silvina's paternal grandfather had been a diplomat.

She married Arturo Palenque in 1936 and had one son. Devoting herself to writing, she contributed literary reviews to La Nación

La Nación

La Nación is an Argentine daily newspaper. The country's leading conservative paper, the centrist Clarín is its main competitor. It is the only newspaper in Argentina still published in broadsheet format.-Overview:...

(then Argentina's wost-widely circulated daily) and, in 1939, had Vibraciones, a volume of poetry and Calles de Buenos Aires ("Streets of Buenos Aires") published. Befriending renown writers Adolfo Bioy Casares

Adolfo Bioy Casares

Adolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentine fiction writer, journalist, and translator. He was a friend and collaborator with his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges, and wrote what many consider one of the best pieces of fantastic fiction, the novella The Invention of Morel.-Biography:Adolfo Bioy...

 and Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...

, in 1945 she collaborated with the latter in a collection of prose titled Los compadritos ("The Poseurs"). These early years in Bullrich's career were accompanied by a difficult phase in her life. Her husband, a lawyer aligned with Argentina's influential conservative Catholic

Paleoconservatism

Paleoconservatism is a term for a conservative political philosophy found primarily in the United States stressing tradition, limited government, civil society, anti-colonialism, anti-corporatism and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton...

 movement, was not a good provider and this, coupled with his disapproval of his wife's work, led to their divorce in 1946. Bullrich also lost her father, elder sister and paternal grandmother during this interim, the latter two of whom she was particularly close with. These experiences were likewise reflected in much of her work, which continued to set young ladies brought up in comfortable circumstances against prolonged, unhappy relationships and relative penury.

This trait was first in evidence in Historia de un silencio ("History of a Silent Moment") in 1949. That novel, set in the popular weekend destination of Tigre

Tigre, Buenos Aires

Tigre is a town in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, situated in the north of Greater Buenos Aires, north of Buenos Aires city. Tigre lies on the Paraná Delta and is an important tourist and weekend attraction, easily reached by bus and train services, including the scenic Tren de la Costa...

 and written from a man's perspective, secured her reputation in the Argentine literary scene. Her Bodas de cristal ("Crystal Jubilee," 1951) and Telefono ocupado ("Busy Signal," 1956) continued showing her preference for detailing private moments and for allowing her characters to criticize male chauvinism or a weak character in women privately and in thought. "Crystal Jubilee" was also her first commercial success and coincided with her marriage to Marcelo Dupont, a happy interlude in her life which ended with his losing his battle with a sudden cancer in 1956.

Silvina Bullrich was awarded the Municipal Literary Prize for El hechicero ("The Sorcerer") and Un momento muy largo ("A Lasting Moment") in 1961 and the following year, she was invited to adapt French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 author Guy des Cars

Guy des Cars

Guy Augustin Marie Jean de la Pérusse des Cars was a French author who specialized in detective stories. He was born on 6 May 1911 in Paris and died on 21 December 1993 in the same city.-Family:...

' novel Les Filles de joie ("Daughters of Happiness") into an Argentine film version; "A Lasting Moment" was likewise adapted into film with Bullrich's script in 1964. That year, she ventured into her first work dealing with social problems in Argentina, Los burgueses ("The Bourgeoisie"), which sold about 60,000 copies in Argentina and was translated into several languages; over the length of her career, this became her best-selling novel. Her Mañana digo basta ("Tomorrow I'll Say, Enough!") was likewise hailed as a compelling feminist argument following its 1968 publication, El mundo que yo vi ("The World I Saw," 1969) was a well-received account of her extensive travels through Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and her Los pasajeros del jardín ("Wanderers in the Garden"), a sentimental account of her marriage with Marcelo Dupont, earned her a National Literary Prize in 1972. Her continued success led to a 1975 film adaptation of her novel "Crystal Jubilee," for which she wrote the screenplay. Continuing to write as a means of exposing deep-seated national problems, she published an indictment of Argentina's cumbersome and often corrupt judicial system in Será justicia ("Justice Be Done," a protocol closing phrase found in all legal briefs in Argentina). Published in 1976, this work coincided with the advent of Argentina's brutal last dictatorship

National Reorganization Process

The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...

 and was the last of Bullrich's acclaimed works. She thereafter limited herself to less controversial novels (without abandoning her feminist points of view) and her memoirs, published in 1980.

An accomplished linguist, Bullrich translated not only Le Filles de joie as screenwriter; but also for Argentine editions of works by Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...

, Beatrix Beck

Béatrix Beck

Béatrix Beck was a French writer from Belgian origin.She was born at Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland, the daughter of the poet Christian Beck. After several jobs, she became the secretary of André Gide, he encouraged her to write about her experiences: her mother's suicide, the war, her poverty, etc...

, Graham Greene

Graham Greene

Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...

, Louis Jouvet

Louis Jouvet

Louis Jouvet was a renowned French actor, director, and theatre director.- Life :Overcoming speech impediments and sometimes paralyzing stage fright as a young man, Jouvet's first important association was with Jacques Copeau's Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, beginning in 1913...

 and George Sand

George Sand

Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...

 (about whom she also wrote a biography in 1946). She shared her talent as a Professor of French Literature

French literature

French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...

 at the prestigious National University of La Plata. She contributed to an acclaimed 1984 documentary, Eva Perón: quien quiera oír que oiga ("Listen if You Want"); while not a Peronist, Bullrich's commentary highlighted the late first lady's significance to the role of women in Argentina. Remaining close to her friend and former collaborator, Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...

, Bullrich visited him shortly before his death in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

 in 1986. That year, she published her last work: La bicicleta. A commentary on the country's recent financial crisis, "The Bicycle" is also a slang term in Argentina analogous to "robbing Peter to pay Paul." A long-time smoker, she developed lung cancer and soon herself relocated to Geneva, seeking specialized medical care. Silvina Bullrich died there on 2 July 1990; she was seventy-four.