Nació en Lima el 7 de Julio de 1874.Fue hijo de doña Eulalia Rodríguez Hercelles y de don José María Eguren y Cáceda, siendo bautizado el mismo día de su nacimiento en la parroquia San Sebastián. Por su precaria salud, fue débil y enfermizo desde pequeño. De niño y adolescente pasó largas temporadas en el campo, en las haciendas Chuquitanta y Pro, donde su padre era administrador y donde su familia se refugió lejos de los estragos de la guerra del Pacífico y sobre todo de la ocupación de Lima. Es posible que esta experiencia inmediata con la naturaleza refinara sus sentidos, lo que luego imprimió en su poesía. Realizó estudios escolares tardíamente desde 1884 en el Colegio de la Inmaculada (Lima) de los padres jesuitas, y luego en el Instituto Científico de Lima. Tiempo después abandonó los estudios regulares, por lo que tuvo una formación autodidacta, inculcada por su hermano mayor Jorge.
Más tarde, en 1897, se traslada al distrito de Barranco, luego del fallecimiento de sus padres y dispersada la familia, junto a sus hermanas mayores Susana y Angélica (quienes permanecieron toda su vida solteras) y de las que nunca se separaría. Barranco era una tranquila villa-balneario junto al mar y próxima a Lima, donde residirá en paz y sosiego absolutos durante más de treinta años, donde recibía a sus amigos y discípulos, como los poetas Martín Adán y Emilio Adolfo Westphalen.
Por los mismos motivos de salud, compensará esa deficiente educación con la lectura voraz, primero de escritores y poetas románticos y modernistas, como Julio Herrera y Reissig; y luego de poetas decadentistas y simbolistas europeos, principalmente franceses, como Baudelaire, Verlaine, Mallarmé, pero también D'Annunzio y Edgar Allan Poe; de la literatura para niños (hermanos Grimm, Andersen); y de los grandes maestros del prerrafaelismo y el esteticismo inglés (Ruskin, Rossetti, Wilde). Todos ellos dejaron de alguna manera huella, pero muy asimilada y personal, en su obra de creación y en su pensamiento estético.
Eguren was born in Lima on July 7, 1874.[2] His parents were Eulalia Rodríguez Hercelles and José María Eguren y Cáceda[3], who had him baptized on the same day of his birth in the San Sebastián parish. Due to health problems, he was weak and sickly since he was little. As a kid and teenager, he would spend much of his time out in the fields, such as the ranches of Chuquitanta and Pro, which his father managed[3], and where his family fled to in order to escape the wreckage caused by the War of the Pacific, and above all, the Occupation of Lima. It is possible that these experiences provided him with a closeness to nature that refined his senses, which was later reflected in his poetry[3]. In his youth, Eguren belatedly began to attend school, starting his studies in 1884 at the age of ten in the Colegio de la Inmaculada run by Jesuits, and then in the Scientific Institute of Lima. A while later, he abandoned his conventional studies and instead took to teaching himself, with the help of his older brother and mentor Jorge.
In 1897, after the death of both his parents and the splitting up of his family, he moved to the district of Barranco with his older sisters Susan and Angelica (who remained single for the rest of their lives), with whom he would continue to live for the rest of his life. Barranco was a serene seaside town close to Lima, and Eguren resided there in peace and tranquility for more than thirty years, where his friends and apprentices such as fellow poets Martín Adán and Emilio Adolfo Westphalen would come to visit.
For persisting health reasons[3], Eguren compensated for his lack of formal education by reading extensively, at first, the works of romantic[4] and modernist writers and poets such as Julio Herrera y Reissig, and later on, the works of European decadent and symbolist poets, primarily French ones[4], like Baudelaire, Verlaine, Mallarmé, but also D'Annunzio and Edgar Allan Poe.[5] He also read children's literature (Brothers Grimm, Andersen), and works from the masters of Preraphaelism and English Aestheticism (Ruskin, Rossetti, Wilde). Each of these writers left some sort of impression on Eguren, but a well-absorbed and very personal one nonetheless, that influenced his creativity and aesthetic beliefs.
- ^ a b Obra poética. Motivos, pp. X-XXIII.
- ^ "José María Eguren." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 24 Oct. 2003. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.
- ^ a b c d McDonald, Roxanne. "José María Eguren." Guide To Literary Masters & Their Works (2007): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.
- ^ a b "Eguren." Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia Of Literature (1995): N.PAG. Literary Reference Center. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.
- ^ Vigil, Ricardo Gonzalez. "Fifteen High Points Of Twentieth-Century Peruvian Poetry." World Literature Today 77.1 (2003): 62. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.