Historical Figures Codexery

Jorge Luis Borges

Argentine writer who renovated the language of fiction.

Born on 24 August 1899, Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges was an Argentine writer of short fiction, essays, poetry, and translations, recognized as essential to both Spanish-language and world literature.[1] The short story collections Ficciones and El Aleph, both from the 1940s, are his most famous works and examine themes like dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional authors, and mythology.[2]

Quick Facts

Birth name
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges
Born
24 August 1899
Birthplace
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died
14 June 1986
Place of death
Geneva, Switzerland
Occupation
  • Writer
  • poet
  • philosopher
  • translator
  • editor
  • critic
  • librarian
Language
Spanish
Notable works
  • Ficciones (1944)
  • El Aleph (1949)
  • Labyrinths (1962)

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Borges was born into an educated middle-class family on 24 August 1899 in Palermo, Buenos Aires.[3] He was taught at home until age 11 and was bilingual in Spanish and English, reading Shakespeare in English at age twelve.[4] His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by English translations and the Latin American Boom.[5] In April 1986, a few months before his death, he married María Kodama via an attorney in Paraguay.[6]

As his sight worsened, Borges depended more on his mother; once he could no longer read or write, she served as his personal secretary.[7]

What the cited sources add

Gene H. Bell-Villada's 1999 book notes that Borges's father gave up practicing law due to failing eyesight that would eventually affect his son.[8][9] A Melville House Publishing edition of "Jorge Luis Borges" was published in June 2013, according to its Open Library record.[10] According to the same source, while in Geneva, Borges's father received treatment from an eye doctor, and his son went to school.[8][9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Jorge Luis Borges" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Borges". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary; accessed 1 April 2016. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Jorge Luis Borges" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Profile of a Writer: Borges and I", Arena, 1983 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Jorge Luis Borges" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bell-Villada, "Borges and His Fiction", University of Texas Press, 1999, p. 14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Jorge Luis Borges" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Borges, Jorge Luis, "Autobiographical Notes", The New Yorker, 19 September 1970. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Jorge Luis Borges" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Masina, Lea. (2001) "Murilo Rubião, o mágico do conto". In: O pirotécnico Zacarias e outros contos escolhidos. Porto Alegre: L & PM, pg. 5.; Borges on Life and Death, Interview by Amelia Barili.; Coetzee, J. M. "Borges' Dark Mirror", New York Review of Books, Volume 45, Number 16. 22 October 1998. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Jorge Luis Borges" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Escribano, "María Kodama: "Borges no necesitó de vino ni alcohol"", La República, 20 July 2006 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Jorge Luis Borges" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Borges, "Jorge Luis Borges: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations (The Last Interview Series)", Melville House, 2013; Finchelstein, "The Ideological Origins of the Dirty War: Fascism, Populism, and Dictatorship in Twentieth Century Argentina", Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 147 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Jorge Luis Borges" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gene H. Bell-Villada, Borges and His Fiction: A Guide to His Mind and Art, University of Texas Press (1999), p. 16;; Edwin Williamson suggests in Borges (Viking, 2004) that Borges did not finish his baccalauréat (pp. 79–80): "he cannot have been too bothered about his bac (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Gene H. Bell-Villada, Borges and His Fiction: A Guide to His Mind and Art, University of Texas Press (1999), p. 16;. facts only, no text reused. archive.org
  10. Open Library record, ISBN 9781612192048 ("Jorge Luis Borges"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jorge Luis Borges (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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