Jorge Luis Borges
(1899–1986)
Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges was born on August 25, 1899, into a family that was immersed in literature and language. His father was a linguist, writer, and translator, in addition to being a lawyer; his mother translated Nathaniel Hawthorne into Spanish. Both English and Spanish were spoken in his home—so fluently that Borges later commented that it was several years before he realized that the two were different languages.
Borges and his younger sister, Norah, spent their childhood in isolation. Their intellectual family lived in a rough neighborhood where they often felt out of place. Borges was taught at home, where he read both English and Spanish literature. At the age of nine, he translated Oscar Wilde’s story "The Happy Prince" into Spanish. Believing it to be the work of Borges’s father, a teacher used this translation as a school text.
Not surprisingly, Borges still felt out of place when he began school and was bullied by the other students. However, in 1914, Borges’s family moved to Geneva, Switzerland, so his father could receive treatment for encroaching blindness. Here, Borges found more sympathetic peers and was exposed to new literature and different languages.
Later, Borges traveled to Spain where he was introduced to a new literary group, the Ultraistas. This group advocated free verse and the use of metaphor. They encouraged Borges to try new ideas in his early works. When he returned to Buenos Aires in 1921, Borges tried to spread the ultraist movement. While in Buenos Aires, Borges also contributed to the founding of several literary magazines, and his first book of poems, Fervor de Buenos Aires, was published in 1923.
In the following years, Borges published poems and essays. He also attempted to write his first short stories. However, in the late 1930s, Borges suffered financial and personal difficulties. He was forced to take a menial job at the Municipal Library—a job that he loathed. His father died in 1938. During World War II, Borges’s anti-Nazi views and criticism of Argentina’s dictator, Juan Perón, resulted in the loss of his job at the library. Borges’s mother and sister were imprisoned because of their opposition to the dictator. At the same time, Borges’s eyesight continued to worsen.
Despite his problems, Borges was slowly gaining fame as a prolific writer. He began to write the experimental stories for which he is best known. His collections of short stories, The Garden of Forking Paths (1941) and El Aleph (1949), demonstrate his fantastic vision.
In the 1950s, the government of Argentina changed, and Borges was appointed director of the National Library. He also began to gain a worldwide reputation. In his later years, although he went almost completely blind in the 1960s, Borges traveled widely and visited universities as a visiting professor. He died in 1986.
