Contents
Jorge Luis Borges
Creating labyrinths, imaginary books and philosophical short stories.
Ficciones · The Aleph
- Born
- 24 August 1899
- Birthplace
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Died
- 14 June 1986
More people
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine writer whose brief fictions turn ideas about infinity, memory and identity into intricate stories. He also wrote poetry, criticism and translations, often blurring boundaries between invention and scholarship.
Early life
Bilingual childhood
Grew up reading Spanish and English in a book-filled household.
European schooling
Lived in Geneva during the First World War and later spent time in Spain.
Career
- 1920s
Buenos Aires writing
Returned to Argentina and published poetry and essays.
- 1930s–1940s
Stories and library work
Worked in a municipal library while developing his best-known fiction.
- 1955–1973
National Library
Directed Argentina’s National Library as his eyesight continued to decline.
- 1960s–1980s
International recognition
Travelled, lectured and collaborated on books after his work reached wider audiences in translation.
Selected work
The Library of Babel
Imagines a library containing every possible book of a fixed format.
Ficciones
Collects stories about invented worlds, texts and systems.
The Aleph
Its title story centres on a point containing every place at once.
Beyond work
Blindness
Gradually lost his sight and increasingly dictated work.
Collaboration
Wrote with Adolfo Bioy Casares and later travelled and worked with María Kodama.
Sources & photo credit
Biography ↗Life and work ↗Photo: Grete Stern. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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