Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Argentine writer, whose challenging and unconventional poetry and fiction made him one of the foremost figures in 20th-century literature. In his writing Borges created a fantastic, totally subjective, and deeply metaphysical world. Describing his work, Borges wrote, “I am neither a thinker nor a moralist, but simply a man of letters who turns his own perplexities and that respected system of perplexities we call philosophy into the forms of literature.”

Born in Buenos Aires, the son of a teacher, Borges was educated in Geneva, Switzerland, and lived briefly in Spain. In 1921 he returned to Argentina, where he helped found several literary and philosophical periodicals and wrote lyrical poetry on historical Argentine themes. His collections included Fervor de Buenos Aires (Fervor of Buenos Aires, 1923), Luna de enfrente (The Moon Opposite, 1925), and Cuarderno San Martín (San Martin Notebook, 1929).

In the 1930s Borges's health failed as a result of a head wound, and he gradually lost his sight. Nevertheless, he worked at the National Library from 1938 to 1947 and served as its director from 1955 to 1973. Beginning in 1955, he also taught English at the University of Buenos Aires. During these years Borges turned from poetry to the short narrative fiction for which he is now famous. Ficciones (1945; translated into English, 1962) is perhaps his most important collection of short stories. Others are El Aleph (1949; The Aleph and Other Stories 1933-1969, 1970), El libro de arena (1955; The Book of Sand, 1977), El hacedor (1960; Dreamtigers, 1964), El libro de los seres imaginarios (1967; The Book of Imaginary Beings, 1969), and El informe de Brodie (1970; Dr. Brodie’s Report, 1972). Labyrinths (1962) is a collection of stories and other writings. Borges also wrote philosophical and literary essays such as those in Otras inquisiciones (1952; Other Inquisitions, 1964). In 1998 Collected Fictions provided the first complete translation into English of all Borges’s works of fiction.