Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

Early Life

Jorge Luis Borges is a Latin American author born in Buenos Aires, 1899.

Borges quickly moved to Geneva soon after his birth where he went to school and learned French and German.

Borges' father was a lawyer and a psychology professor. His mother was a translator.

His father would teach him philosophy and his mother lived into her 90's.

by the age of 6 he had started

writing.

Middle Life

In 1921 Borges started his

career writing and

publihing poetry

and essays.

Throughout his life and career he moves all around South America and Europe, settling for a few years at a time.

Borges goes blind gradually as he becomes older, only strengthening his writing style.

Borges moves in 1985 permanently to Geneva, Switzerland. Where he died of liver cancer on June 14, 1986

Contributions

Borges is an immensly intelligent man, his writings and short stories depict a reality within a reality, the thoughts within other thoughts.

He is known for his writings about the complexity of dreams, realities, oblivion, and the worlds within them.

Throughout his career he was constantly contributing to literary journals in South America.

He became the director of the National Library in South America.

His writings were nominated for The National Literary Prize,

In 1950 Borges was elected President of the Sociedad Argentina de Escritores (The Argentine Writer’s Society.)

His books

Borges has many parables, essays, and stories. It is hard to pick one to describe in detail because of their complexity and immensity. But as a whole Borges' writes about the world, below its surface. He writes about time, space, the infinite, metaphysics, idealism, conceptions of things that cannot be understood. He views the world as an immense puzzle that almost can't be put together.

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”

FERVOR DE BUENOS AIRES, 1923

LUNA DE ENFRENTE, 1923

INQUISICIONES, 1925

EL TAMAÑO DE MI ESPERANZA, 1926

EL IDIOMA DE LOS ARGENTINOS, 1928

CUADERNOS SAN MARTÍN, 1929

EVARISTO CARRIEGO, 1930 - Evaristo Carriego: a Book about Old-Time Buenos Aires (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni)

DISCUSIÓN, 1932

LAS KENNIGAR, 1933

HISTORIA UNIVERSAL DE LA INFAMIA, 1935 - A Universal History of Infamy (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni)

HISTORIA DE LA ETERNIDAD, 1936 - History of Etenity

trans.: Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, 1937

trans.: Virginia Woolf's Orlando, 1937

ed.: Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, 1938

trans.: William Faulkner's The Wild Palms, 1941

EL JARDÍN DE SENDEROS QUE SE BIFURCAN, 1941 - Haarautuvien polkujen puutarha (suom. Matti Rossi)

SEIS PROBLEMAS PARA DON ISIDRO PARODI, 1942 (under the pseudonym H. Bustos Domecq, with Adolfo Bioy Cesares) - Six Problems for Don Isidro Parodi (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni)

EL JARDIN DE SENDEROS QUE SE BIFURCAN, 1942

FICCIONES, 1944 - Ficciones (tr. by Anthony Kerrigan)

DOS FANTASÍAS MEMORABLES, 1946 (under the pseudonym H. Bustos Domecq, with Adolfo Bioy Cesares)

UN MODELO PARA LA MUERTE, 1946 (under the pseudonym B. Suárez Lynch, with Adolfo Bioy Cesares)

NUEVA REFUTACÍON DEL TIEMPO, 1947

EL ALEPH, 1949 - The Aleph and Other Stories (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni)

ASPECTOS DE LA LITERARA GAUCHESCA, 1950

LA MUERTE Y LA BRÚJULA, 1951

ANTIGUAS LITERATURAS GERMÁNICAS, 1951 (with Delia Ingenieros)

OTRAS INQUISICIONES 1937-1952, 1952 - Other Inquisitions 1937-1952 (tr. by Ruth L.C. Simms)

EL "MARTIN FIERRO", 1953 (with Margarita Guerrero)

LOS ORILLEROS, 1955

LEOPOLDO LUGONES, 1955 (with Betina Edelberg)

MANUAL DE ZOOLOGIA FANTASTICA, 1957 (rev. ed. EL LIBRO DE LOS SERES IMAGINARIOS, 1967) - The Imaginary Zoo (tr. by Tim Reynolds) / The Book of Imaginary Beings (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni) - Kuvitteellisten olentojen kirja (suom. Sari Selander, 2009)

OBRAS COMPLETAS, VIII 1954-60

LIBRO DEL CIELO Y DEL INFIERNO, 1960

EL HACEDOR, 1960 - The Doer / The Dreamtigers (tr. by Mildred Boyer and Harold Morland)

ANTOLOGÍA PERSONAL, 1961 - A Personal Anthology (tr. by Anthony Kerrigan)

MACEDONIO FERNÁDEZ, 1963

EL OTRO, EL MISMO, 1964

OBRAS COMPLETAS III, 1964

PARA LAS SEIS CUERDAS, 1965

INTRODUCCIÓN A LA LITERATURA INGLESA, 1965 (with María Esther Vásquez) - An Introduction to English Literature (tr. by Clark Keating and Robert O. Evans)

LITERATURAS GERMÁNICAS MEDIAVALES, 1966 (with María Esther Vásquez)

CRÓNICAS DE BUSTOS DOMECQ, 1967 (with Adolfo Bioy Cesares) - Chronicles of Bustos Domecq (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni)

INTRODUCCIÓN A LA LITERATURA NORTEAMERICANA, 1967 - An Introduction to American Literature (tr. by Clark Keating and Robert O. Evans)

MUEVA ANTOLOGÍA PERSONAL, 1968

ELOGIO DE LA SOMBRA, 1969 - In Praise of Darkness (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni)

EL OTRO, EL MISMO, 1969

EL INFORME DE BRODIE, 1970 - Dr. Brodie's Report (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni) - Hiekkakirja (suomentanut Pentti Saaritsa)

EL CONGRESO, 197O - The Congress (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni)

EL ORO DE LOS TIGRES, 1972 - The Gold of Tigers (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni, in The Book of Sand, 1975)

Borges on Writing, 1973

OBRAS COMPLETAS, 1974 (ed. by Carlos V. Frías)

EL LIBRO DE ARENA, 1975 - The Book of Sand (tr. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni) - Hiekkakirja (suomentanut Pentti Saaritsa)

LA ROSA PROFUNDA, 1975

PRÓLOGOS CON UN PRÓLOGO DE PRÓLOGOS, 1975

LA MONEDA DE HIERRO, 1976

LIBRO DE SUEÑOS, 1976

ANDROGUÉ, 1977

ASESINOS DE PAPEL, 1977

HISTORIA DE LA NOCHE, 1977

LA ROSA DE PARACELSO, 1977

NUEVOS CUENTOS DE BUSTOS DOMECQ, 1977 (with Adolfo Bioy Cesares)

TIGRES AZULES, 1977

OBRA POÉTICA, 1964-1978 (6 vols.)

OBRAS COMPLETAS EN COLABORARACIÓN, 1979

PROSA COMPLETA, 1980 (2 vols.)

screenplay: The Intruder, dir. by Carlos Hugo Christiansen, 1980

SIETE NOCHES, 1980 - Seven Nights (tr. by Eliot Weinberger)

LA CIFRA, 1981

NUEVE ENSAYOS DANTESCOS, 1982

VEINTICINCO AGOSTO, 1983

OBRA POETICA, 1923-1977, 1983

Y OTROS CUENTOS, 1983

LOS CONJURADOS, 1985

ATLAS, 1985 - Atlas (tr. by Anthony Kerrigan)

TEXTOS CAUTIVOS, 1986 (ed. by Enrique Socerio-Gari and Emir Rodríguez Monegal)

EL ALEPH BORGIANO, 1987

BORGES, EL JUDAISMO E ISRAEL, 1988

PÁGINAS ESCOGIDAS, 1988 (ed. by Roberto Fernández Retamar)

BIBLIOTECA PERSONAL: PRÓLOGOS, 1988

OBRAS COMPLETAS, 1989 (2 vols.)

Selected Poems, 1998

Collected Fictions, 1998 (tr. by Andrew Hurley)

Selected Non-Fictions, 1999 (ed. by Eliot Weinberger, tr. by Esther Allen, Suzanne Jill Levine, Eliot Weinberger)

“Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.”

“Reality is not always probable, or likely.”

“Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.”