Antonio Alatorre Vergara (July 25, 1922 – October 21, 2010) was a Mexican writer, philologist and translator, famous due to his influential academic essays about Spanish literature, and because of his book Los 1001 años de la lengua española (The 1001 Years of the Spanish Language).
Early years
Antonio Alatorre was born in Autlán de la Grana, Jalisco. He studied Latin, Greek, French and English during his youth. He studied law at first, but switched to studying literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and philology at El Colegio de México (Colmex). He studied in France and Spain with professors such as Raymond Lebergue and Marcel Bataillon.
Works
He was the director of El Colegio de México from 1953 to 1972, when he edited and directed the Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica. He taught since 1943 and participated in conferences and courses in several countries. He won Mexico's National Price of Linguistics and Literature in 1998. He was appointed as a member of El Colegio Nacional on September 13, 2001, and as an honorary member of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua in September 2001. He died in Mexico City.
Journals
In addition to the Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica (NRFH), Alatorre edited the literary journal Pan (Guadalajara, 1945), Historia Mexicana (El Colegio de México, 1952–1959), was the co-director of the Revista Mexicana de Literatura (1958–1960) and participated in Diálogos and Nexos.
Books
El apogeo del castellano. Fondo de Cultura Económica. México. Enigmas ofrecidos a la casa del placer de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (edición comentada). El Colegio de México. Ensayos sobre crítica literaria. Centro Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CNCA). Juana de Asbaje de Amado Nervo (Introducción y edición). CNCA. Los 1001 años de la lengua española. 3a. ed. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica. 2002. El sueño erótico en la poesía española de los siglos de oro. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2003. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Obras completas, t. I, 2a ed. (Introducción, edición y notas). México: FCE, 2009.