Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges was born on the 24^th August 1899 in Buenos Aires; he died on the 14^th June 1986. He was an argentine short story writer, essayist, a translator and also a poet. The works he did embrace the character of unreality in all literature. The best book he did called Ficciones and The Aleph that were published in the 1940s, are the compilations of the short stories that are joined by the common themes including writers, philosophy, dreams, labyrinths, libraries, religion, fictional and mirror.

source of picture: csendszirom.qwqw.hu

Luis Borges’s works has contributed to the philosophical literature and also the fantasy genre. The late poems he wrote dialogued with the cultural figures like Spinoza, Camoes and Virgil.

Life and Career

Luis Borges was born into an educated middle class family on the 24^th August 1899. They were comfortably living but were not wealthy enough to live in the downtown, Buenos Aires. They lived in Palermo, which was a poorer region of the country. His mother called Leonor Acavedo Suarez was from the traditional Uruguayan family of criollo origin. The book he wrote in the year 1929 known with the name Cuaderno San Martín, consisted of the poem called Isidoro Acevedo. The poem commemorated his grandfather, Isidoro de Acevedo Laprida, who was a soldier of the Buenos Aires army.

At the age of 9, Luis Borges translated The Happy Prince that was written by Oscar Wilde into the Spanish language. The book was published in a local journal, though his friends thought that the real author of the book was the father.

Luis Borges was taught at home until he turned 11 years of age. He was good in the Spanish and the English languages and always read the Shakespeare in the later age of 12. His family resided in a large house that has an English library of more than 1000 volumes. His father gave up the practice of law because of the failing eyesight that could affect the son. In the year 1914, his family relocated to Geneva, Switzerland and they spent the next 10 years in Europe. In the year 1917, at the age of 18, Luis Borges met Maurice Abramovicz and they started literary friendship that lasted for the rest of their life. The family decided that because of the political crisis in the country, they would remain in Switzerland and they stayed until the year 1921. After the World War I, the family spent three years residing in the following cities, Lugano, Barcelona, Majorca, Sevilla and Madrid.

At that time, Luis Borges found out the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer and Gustav Meyrink’s work called The Golem in the year 1915 that influenced his work. In Spain, Luis Borges became a member of the avant-garde, anti-Modernist Ultraist literary movement, stimulated by Guillaume Apollinaire and also FilippoTommaso Marinetti, close to the Imagists. He also met the most popular writers of the country like Rafael CansinosAssens and Ramón Gómez de la Serna. His debut poem called Hymn of the Sea was written with the pattern of Walt Whitman and was published in the magazine called Grecia.

In the year 1921, Luis Borges went back to Buenos Aires with the family. He had little formal education and no qualifications and few friends. By the mid-1930s, Luis Borges started exploring the questions and fictions that are in existence. He worked in a pattern that was called Irreality by the Argentine critic, Ana Maria. Many other Latin American writers like Juan Rulfo, Juan José Arreola, and AlejoCarpentier also investigated the themes of the writings of Luis Borges.

From the first, Luis Borges was a constant contributor to Sur that was founded in the year 1931 by Victoria Ocampo. It was the most crucial literary journal of the country at that time and it helped Luis Borges to discover his popularity in the country.

In the year 1933, Luis Borges got an editorial appointment at the literary supplement of the newspaper called Critica, and it was there that he published the pieces that were collected as Historia universal de la infamia in the year 1935. The book consisted of two patterns of writing; the first is within the non-fictional assays and short stories and the second is made up of the literary forgeries that Luis Borges initially passed off as translations of passages from famous but seldom-read work.

Luis Borges served as a literary adviser for the publishing company called EmecéEditores, and from the year 1936 to the year 1939, Luis Borges wrote the weekly columns for El Hogar. In the year 1938, Luis Borges got a job to work as the first assistant at the Miguel Cane Municipal Library.

His father died in the year 1938 and that was a tragedy for him as he was very close to the father. He suffered a head injury on the Christmas Eve of that same year and he almost died of septicemia. As he was recovering from the accident, he started experimenting with a new pattern of writing and the pattern was latter successful. His first novel after he had recovered was called Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote and it came out in the year 1939. The work was one of the most famous of his works and the book examines the nature of the authorship and the relationship between the author of the book and the historical context of the book. His first collection of short stories was published in the year 1941 and it consisted mostly of the works that were published in Sur.

With the visions he had starting to fade in the early part of the 1930s, Luis Borges started a new career as a public lecturer. He became a popular member of the society and gained appointment to be the president of the argentine society of writers and as a professor of the English language and also of the American Literature at the argentine Association of English Culture. The short story he wrote with the name Emma Zunz was made into a movie with the name Dias de Odio in the year 1954 and directed by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson. He also started writing screenplays at this time.

He was in the year 1955, nominated to be the director of the National Library of the country. By the later part of the 1950s, he was completely blind.

Works

Ø  Fervor de Buenos Aires, 1923, poetry.

Ø  Inquisiciones, 1925, essays.

Ø  Luna de Enfrente, 1925, poetry.

Ø  El tamaño de mi esperanza, 1925, essays.

Ø  El idioma de los argentinos, 1928, essays.

Ø  Cuaderno San Martín, 1929, poetry.

Ø  EvaristoCarriego, 1930

Ø  Discusión, 1932, essays

Ø  Historia universal de la infamia, 1935.

Ø  Historia de la eternidad, 1936, essays.

Ø  El jardín de senderosque se bifurcan, 1941, short stories

Ø  Seisproblemaspara don Isidro Parodi, 1942.

Ø  Poemas : 1922-1943, 1943, poetry.

Ø  Ficciones, 1944, short stories

Ø  Unmodelopara la muerte, 1946, detective fiction.

Ø  Dos fantasíasmemorables, 1946, two fantasy stories.

Ø  El Aleph, 1949, essays and short stories.

Ø  Aspectos de la poesíagauchesca, 1950, literary criticism.

Ø  Antiguasliteraturasgermánicas, 1951, literary criticism.

Ø  La muerte y la brújula, 1951, short stories selected from earlier published volumes.

Ø  Otrasinquisiciones 1937-1952, 1952, essays and literary criticism.

Ø  Historia de la eternidad, 1953, essays, short stories, and literary criticism.

Ø  El "Martín Fierro", 1953, essays on the epic Argentine poem Martín Fierro.

Ø  Poemas : 1923-1953, 1954, poetry.

Ø  Los orilleros; El paraíso de los creyentes, 1955, 2 screenplays, written with Adolfo BioyCasares.

Ø  LeopoldoLugones, 1955, literary criticism, written with BetinaEdelborg.

Ø  La hermana de Eloísa, 1955, short stories.

Ø  Manual de zoologíafantástica, 1957, short smithereens about imaginary beings, written with Margarita Guerrero.

Ø  Libro del cielo y delinfierno, 1960, essays and one poem, written with Adolfo BioyCasares.

Ø  El Hacedor, 1960, poetry and short prose pieces.

Ø  Antología Personal, 1961, essays, poetry, literary criticism.

Ø  El lenguaje de Buenos Aires, 1963, long essays, written with José Edmundo Clemente.

Ø  Introducción a la literaturainglesa, 1965, literary criticism, written with María Esther Vázquez.

Ø  Para lasseiscuerdas, 1965, lyrics for tangos and milongas.

Ø  Literaturasgermánicasmedievales, 1966, literary criticism, written with María Esther Vázquez.

Ø  Crónicas de Bustos Domecq, literary forgery/essays, 1967, written with Adolfo BioyCasares.

Ø  Introducción a la literaturanorteamericana, 1967, literary criticism, written with Esther Zemborain de Torres.

Ø  El libro de los seresimaginarios, 1967.

Ø  Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges, 1968, with Richard Burgin.

Ø  Nueva Antología Personal, 1968, essays, poetry, literary criticism

Ø  Museo, 1969, poetry.

Ø  Elogio de la Sombra, 1969, poetry.

Ø  El otro, el mismo, 1969, poetry,

Ø  El informe de Brodie, short stories, 1970.

Ø  El congreso, 1971, essays.

Ø  NuevosCuentos de Bustos Domecq, 1972. Borges.

Ø  El oro de los tigres, 1972, poetry.

Ø  El libro de arena, 1975, short stories

Ø  La Rosa Profunda, 1975, poetry.

Ø  La moneda de hierro, 1976, poetry.

Ø  Diálogos, 1976, conversations between Borges and Ernesto Sabato.

Ø  ¿Quees el budismo?, 1976, lectures, written with Alicia Jurado.

Ø  Historia de la noche, 1977, poetry.

Ø  Prólogos con unprólogo de prólogos, 1977, a collection of numerous book prologues Borges wrote over the years.

Ø  Borges El Memorioso, 1977, conversations with Antonio Carrizo

Ø  Rosa y Azul: La rosa de Paracelso; Tigresazules, 1977, (short stories).

Ø  Borges, oral, 1979, lectures.

Ø  Sietenoches, 1980, lectures.

Ø  La cifra, 1981, poetry.

Ø  Nueveensayosdantescos, 1982, essays on Dante.

Ø  Unargumento, 1983, (genre?).

Ø  Veinticinco de Agosto de 1983 y otroscuentos, 1983, short stories

Ø  Altas, 1984, stories and essays, written with María Kodama.

Ø  Los conjurados, 1985, poetry.

Ø  Textoscautivos, 1986, literary criticism, book reviews, short biographies of authors, translations.

Ø  This Craft of Verse, 2000, lectures, edited by Călin-Andrei Mihăilescu, a collection of six first English language lectures by delivered by Borges from the year 1967 to the year 1968,

Screenplays

Ø  Los Orilleros  (with Adolfo BioyCasares)

Ø  El Paraíso de los Creyentes (with Adolfo BioyCasares)

Ø  Invasión, 1968, directed by Hugo Santiago.