Torres Bodet, Jaime, << TAWR rays baw THEHT, HY may >> (1902-1974), was an important Mexican poet, educator, and statesman. Much of his poetry deals with dark themes, such as loneliness, a longing for death, and the author’s opposition to what he sees as a hostile, dehumanized modern world. Torres Bodet’s first collection of poetry was Fervor (1918). His other collections include Songs (1922), The House (1923), The Folding Screen (1925), Exile (1930), Crypt (1937), Frontiers (1954), and Without Truce (1957). A bilingual Selected Poems of Jaime Torres Bodet was published in 1964. He also wrote six novels from 1927 to 1937, the most praised being Shadows (1937).
Torres Bodet was born on April 17, 1902, in Mexico City. He was professor of French literature at the University of Mexico from 1924 to 1929. During the 1930’s and early 1940’s, he served in Mexican embassies throughout the world. He was Mexico’s minister of education from 1943 to 1946, modernizing the country’s schools and library system. He was foreign minister of Mexico from 1946 to 1948 and director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 1948 to 1952. He died on May 13, 1974.
