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Borges 1899 - 1986 (87)

“Nothing is built on stone; All is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.


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Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) was an Argentine writer and poet among the most important writers of the 20th century. He is known both for his short stories where the imaginary dominates, as well as for his poems and essays. Born in Buenos Aires on August 24, 1899, his father was a lawyer and psychology professor, and he was raised bilingual as his English-speaking grandmother taught him to speak and write English. From a young age he wanted to become a writer and at the age of seven he wrote a summary of the Greek mythology. At 8 he wrote his first short story and at 9 he translated Oscar Wilde's "Happy Prince" into Spanish.

Due to a disease in his eyes, which will gradually lead him to complete blindness, the Borges family moved to Geneva, where Jorge received a high level of education and perfected his knowledge of English, French and German. In 1919, based in Mallorca, Spain, he completed his first collection of poems, “The Red Rhythms”, influenced by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. The Borges family, after many temporary stays and many trips to Europe, returned in 1921 to Buenos Aires. He started writing poems, short stories, essays, fantasy stories, founding magazines, taking part in literary groups and publishing at least 1 to 2 books each year.

In 1938 his father died and in the same year he had an accident, he was severely hit in the head and almost died of sepsis. In 1955, the year in which he completely lost his vision, he was appointed head of the National Library. As he remarked: "God gave me the books and the night at the same time." Borges lived most of his life with his mother, after intense pressure from her, as she wanted him to find someone to live with, he married in 1967. Three years later he divorced and escaped from a miserable marriage. He continued to live with his mother until her death in 1975 at the age of 99; The following years he embarked on a series of travels around the world. He died of liver cancer in Geneva on June 14, 1986.