Jorge Luis Borges

Who is Jorge Luis Borges?

Jorge Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires on 24 August 1899 and died in Geneva, Switzerland, on 14 June 1986. Educated partly in Europe, he became one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century literature, celebrated for compact, intellectually dense short stories that blur the boundaries between fiction, essay and philosophy. His landmark collections 'Ficciones' (1944) and 'El Aleph' (1949) explore labyrinths, infinite libraries, mirrors, time and the nature of identity, and helped inspire what became known as magical realism. Borges also worked as a librarian and was appointed director of the National Public Library of Argentina in 1955, around the time he became almost completely blind. Though he never received the Nobel Prize, he shared the international Formentor Prize with Samuel Beckett in 1961, which brought him worldwide fame. His erudite, playful style shaped generations of writers across the globe.

Sources: Jorge Luis Borges, 'Ficciones' (1944) · Jorge Luis Borges, 'El Aleph' (1949) · Edwin Williamson, 'Borges: A Life' (Viking, 2004)