JORGE LUIS BORGES

Argentine poet, essayist, and short-story writer, whose tales of fantasy and dreamworlds are classics of the 20th-century world of literature. Borges was profoundly influenced by European culture, English literature, and such thinkers as Berkeley, who argued that there is no material substance; the sensible world consists only of ideas, which exists for so long as they are perceived. Most of Borges' tales embrace universal themes - the often recurring circular labyrinth can be seen as a metaphor of life or a riddle who's theme is time. Although Borges' name was mentioned in speculations about the Nobel Prize, Borges never became a Nobel Laureate.

Jorge Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires . His family included British ancestry and he learned English before Spanish. His father, of Italian, Jewish, and English heritage, was a lawyer and a psychology teacher, who demonstrated the paradoxes of Zeno on a chessboard for his son. In the large house was also a library and garden which enchanted Borges' imagination. Borges' mother was a translator; she lived far into her 90's. In 1914 the family moved to Geneva , where Borges learned French and German and received his B.A. from the Collège of Geneva.

After World War I the Borges family lived in Spain , where he was a member of avant-garde Ultraist literary group. His first poem, Hymn to the Sea, written in the style of Walt Whitman, was published in the magazine Grecia. In 1921 Borges settled in Buenos Aires . He then started his career as a writer by publishing poems and essays in literary journals. Among his friends was the philosopher Macedonio Fernandez, whose dedication linguistic problems influenced his thought. Borges's first collection of poetry was Fervor de Buenos Aires  (1923). He contributed to the avant-garde review Martin Fierro, co-founded the journals Proa (1924-26) and Sur, which became Argentina 's most important literary journal, and wrote for Prisma. He also served as literary adviser for the publishing house Emecé Editores, and wrote weekly columns for El Hogar from 1936 to 1939. As a critic Borges gained fame with interpretations of the Argentine classics. His writings displayed a deep knowledge of European and American literature, in particular for such writers as Poe, Stevenson, Kipling, Shaw, Chesterton, Whitman, Emerson, and Twain.

Borges's father died in 1938, a great blow because the two had been unusually close. Borges also suffered a severe head wound. After recovery, the experience freed in him deep forces of creativity. His first collection of the intricate and fantasy-woven short stories, El Jardin de Senderos que se Bifurcan, was published in 1941. Later collections include Ficciones (1944), El Aleph (1949), and El El Hacedor (1960). Borges's interest in fantasy was shared by another well-known Argentine writer of fiction, Adolfo Bioy Casares, with whom Borges co-authored several collections of tales between 1942 and 1967.

From the late 1930s to 1946 Borges worked at the Miguel Cane branch of the Buenos Aires Municipal Library as the first assistant. He was fired from his post by the Péron regime, and appointed poultry inspector for Buenos Aires Municipal Market. Borges' political opinions were not considered inoffensive. As a sign of negative attention, an attempt was made to bomb the house where Borges lived with his mother. After Peron's deposition Borges become Director of the National Library (1955-1973). "I speak of God's splendid irony in granting me at once 800 000 book and darkness," Borges noted alluding to his now almost complete blindness. Borges also was professor of literature at the University of Buenos Aires , and taught there from 1955 to 1970.

Borges shared the Prix Formentor with Samuel Beckett in 1961. After the death of his mother, who had been his constant companion, Borges started his series of visits to countries all over the world, continuing traveling until his death. In 1967 Borges began a five-year period of collaboration with Norman Thomas di Giovanni, and gained new fame in the English-speaking world. When Juan Perón was again elected president in 1973, Borges resigned as director of the National Library. Despite his opposition to Perón and later to the junta, his support to liberal causes were considered too ambiguous.

Borges, who had long suffered from eye problems, become totally blind in his last decades. He had a congenital defect that had afflicted several generations on his father's side of the family. However, he continued to publish several books, among them El Libro de Los Series Imaginarios (1967), El Informe de Brodie (1970), and El Libro de Arena (1975).

Borges died of liver cancer on June 14, 1986 in Geneva , Switzerland .

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