Borges history of life and work. Jorge Luis Borges - biography, information, personal life

Borges, Jorge Luis- Jorge Luis Borges. BORGES (Borges) Jorge Luis (1899 1986), Argentine writer. In short stories with fantastic plots, a kind of fictional parables (collections Fictional Stories, 1944, Aleph, 1949, Lines of Running Grains of Sand, 1975) the world... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (Borges) (1899 1986), Argentine writer. In short stories with fantastic plots, a kind of fictional parables (collections “Fictional Stories”, 1944; “Aleph”, 1949; “Lines of Running Grains of Sand”, 1975) the world appears as a special reality, and... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Borges Jorge Luis (b. 8/24/1899, Buenos Aires), Argentine writer. He began his literary activity in Spain as one of the founders of the modernist movement of ultraism, the principles of which he later developed in Argentine poetry... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

BORGEZ Jorge Luis- BORGES Jorge Luis (b. 1899), Argentine writer. Sat. poems “The Heat of Buenos Aires” (1923), “The Notebook of San Martin” (1929), “The Creator” (1960), “Different, still the same” (1964), “For six strings. Milongas of Jorge Luis Borges" (1965), "Deep Rose" ... Literary encyclopedic dictionary

- (Borges, Jorge Luis) (1899 1986), Argentine writer, known primarily for laconic prose fantasies, often masking discussions about serious scientific problems or taking the form of adventure or detective stories... Collier's Encyclopedia

Borges Xopxe Luis- (Borges) (b. 1899), Argentine writer. He was educated in Europe. One of the founders of the avant-garde movement in Spanish-language poetry in Latin America in the 20s. (so-called ultraism), as well as the literary group “Florida”... ... Encyclopedic reference book "Latin America"

- (Spanish Jorge Luis Borges; August 24, 1899, Buenos Aires; June 14, 1986, Geneva) Argentine prose writer, poet and publicist. Borges is known primarily for his laconic prosaic fantasies, often masking discussions about serious scientific problems... ... Wikipedia

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Luis Borges (Spanish Jorge Luis Borges; August 24, 1899, Buenos Aires June 14, 1986, Geneva) Argentine prose writer, poet and publicist. Borges is best known for his laconic prosaic fantasies, often masking... ... Wikipedia

Jorge Luis Borges(Spanish Jorge Luis Borges; August 24, 1899 - June 14, 1986) - Argentine prose writer, poet, translator and publicist. First of all, he is known for his laconic fantasy works with veiled discussions about basic philosophical postulates. The effect of authenticity of fictional events is achieved by introducing into the narrative genuine episodes of Argentine history and the names of contemporary writers, as well as facts from one’s own biography.

In the 20s In the twentieth century, he became one of the founders of avant-gardeism in Spanish-language Latin American poetry.

The influence of the Argentine writer on world culture is enormous, his personality is extraordinary and mysterious.

Childhood

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (Spanish: Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo) is the writer’s full name, however, according to Argentine tradition, he never used it.

Borges was original from birth: he was born at 8 months old. This event took place on August 24, 1899, in the family of lawyer Jorge Guillermo Borges (Spanish: Jorge Guillermo Borges) and Leonor Acevedo (Spanish: Leonor Acevedo). His father, a lawyer, professor of psychology, who dreamed of literary fame, had Spanish and Irish roots: on his mother’s side he was related to the English family Hazle from the county of Staffordshire. Jorge Guillermo suffered from a severe eye disease and really hoped that his son had inherited his vision, as well as his blue eye color, from his mother. But hopes were not justified: already in early childhood, Jorge Luis was forced to wear glasses. Mother, Leonor Acevedo Suarez (Spanish: Leonor Rita Acevedo Suarez), apparently came from a family of Portuguese Jews; Borges himself claimed that Basque, Andalusian, English, Jewish, Portuguese and Norman blood flowed in him.

Most of Jorge Luis' childhood was spent in the house that belonged to his mother's parents, among books - his father collected a huge library of English-language literature.

The family spoke Spanish and English. At the age of 4 the boy could read and write. Thanks to his grandmother Fanny Hazlam and the English governess, the boy learned to read in English earlier than in Spanish. Georgie (as his family called him) grew up a classic bilingual: as a child, he often mixed words in 2 languages. The boy loved to play with his younger sister Nora and loved to read while lying on the floor. He was fond of Twain, Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Wells, Stevenson, Kipling, and became interested in poetry early on. He later recalled that the first novel in his life was Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn.” “I spent most of my childhood in the home library,” Borges wrote in his “Autobiographical Notes,” “Sometimes it seems to me that I never left it.”

In 1905, the boy began learning English with a home teacher. Jorge Luis decided to become a writer at the age of 6, a year later he wrote his first story in the manner of Cervantes, “La visera fatal” (“The Fatal Visor”). At the age of 9, he translated Oscar Wilde’s famous fairy tale “The Happy Prince,” and his translation was so good that it was attributed to his father and was published in the capital’s newspaper “El País” in 1910.

Jorge Luis Borges himself described his entry into the literary path as follows: “From early childhood, when my father was struck by blindness, it was silently understood in the family that I would have to accomplish in literature what my father failed to achieve. It was taken for granted that I would certainly be a writer.”.

Georgie went to school only at the age of 11, immediately entering the 4th grade. But the teachers could not teach him anything new, and his classmates immediately disliked him: the puny, bespectacled know-it-all in English suits was simply created for bullying.

Life in Europe

In 1914, the family went on vacation to Europe, but with the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918), the return to the country was postponed, and the Borges stayed in Switzerland, where Nora and her brother went to school. The young man was able to obtain a formal education and a bachelor's degree by studying French and entering Geneva College. This is one of the countless paradoxes of his life: the writer, famous for his erudition, did not study anywhere else, and all his future doctorates were Honoris Causa (from Latin “for the sake of honor”; an expression added to an academic degree if it was awarded without defense).

At the same time, he began to write poetry in French. In 1918, Jorge Luis moved to Spain, where he joined the ultraists (from Spanish Ultraismo; the original meaning of the word is “extreme in views, opinions, beliefs”) - an avant-garde group of poets. The main requirement of ultraism for poetics was the following: metaphor as a means of creating a “poetic image.”

Return to Argentina

Borges returned to Argentina in 1921 as an already established poet. He embodied the principles of ultraism in his unrhymed poems about Buenos Aires - in 1923, Jorge Luis published his first book “ The heat of Buenos Aires", which included 33 poems. The cover of the debut edition was designed by the poet's sister.

At the end of the 1920s, Borges moved away from poetry and became interested in writing “fantasy” prose. Already in his early works, he had a masterful command of words, shone with erudition, knowledge of languages and the foundations of philosophy. He published actively in his hometown, and also founded his own first magazine, Prisma, and then another, Proa.

The flourishing of literary creativity

In the 1930s. Jorge Luis Borges wrote a large number of essays on Argentine literature, art, history and cinema, and at the same time he wrote a column in the magazine “El Hogar”, where he published reviews of books by foreign authors. The writer also regularly published in the leading literary magazine "Sur", founded in 1931. Victoria Ocampo(Spanish Victoria Ocampo), a prominent Argentine writer. In particular, Borges translated the works of Virginia Woolf, Faulkner, and Kipling for the Sur publishing house.

Late 1930s became difficult for the writer: he buried his grandmother and father. Now he was forced to provide financially for the entire family. With the help of a poet Francisco Luis Bernardes(Spanish: Francisco Louis Bernardez; 1900 - 1978) B. went to work at the capital's municipal library Miguel Cane (Spanish: Biblioteca Miguel Cane), where he spent a lot of time in the basement of the book depository, writing his books. Subsequently, Borges called the years of service in the library (1937-1946) “9 deeply unhappy years,” although it was during that period that his first masterpieces appeared.

In 1938, Jorge Luis nearly died of sepsis after hitting a window frame, and began to write in a new way. Lying in a hospital bed, he composed the story “ Pierre Menard, author of Don Quixote"(Spanish: Pierre Menard, author del Quijote), one of the most famous stories, with which the “real Borges” begins: no one has ever written like this, no one has ever thought like this. Incomprehensible B. anticipated postmodernism with its mixture of styles and genres, the possibility of multiple interpretations of texts, irony and pervasive literary play. It was from this text, composed in a hospital and written in a library basement in 1938, that postmodernism grew.

In the library's storage were also written " Tlen, Ukbar, Orbis Tertius», « Lottery in Babylon», « Babylonian Library», « Garden of Forking Paths" Many of his best stories written during that period were included in the collections: “Fictions” (Spanish: “Ficciones”; 1944), “Intricacies” (Spanish: “Labyrinths”; 1960) and “ Brody's message"(Spanish: "El Informe de Brodie"; 1971).

In 1937, his Anthology of Classical Argentine Literature (Spanish: Antología de la literatura clásica argentina) was published. And in Paris, the first collection of his stories translated into French was published - “Fictions” (Spanish “Ficciones”; 1944).

After coming to power (Spanish: Juan Domingo Peron) in 1946, Borges was immediately fired from his job, since the new regime did not like many of his creations and statements. The writer existed as an unemployed man from 1946 to 1955, until the overthrow of the dictatorship.

World fame

In the early 1950s. Jorge Luis Borges returned to poetry; The poems of this period are written in classical meters, with rhyme, and are mainly elegiac in nature.

This period was marked by recognition of the writer's talent in Argentina and abroad.

In 1952, the writer published “ Argentinian language"(Spanish: Argentinos del lenguaje), an essay about the peculiarities of Argentine Spanish. In 1953, some stories from the collection “Aleph” were translated into French in the form of the book “Intricacies” (French “Labyrinths”). In the same year, the Emece publishing house began publishing the complete works of the writer. In 1954, the greatest master of Argentine cinema, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson(Spanish: Leopoldo Torre Nilsson; film director, screenwriter, producer), directed the crime drama “Days of Hate” (Spanish: Días de odio) based on a story by Borges.

In 1955, after the military coup that overthrew the Perón government, the nearly blind Borges was appointed director of the National Library of Argentina (a post he held until 1973) and lecturer in English and American literature at the University of Buenos Aires.

In December 1955, the writer was elected a member of the Argentine Literary Academy; he continued to write actively.

In 1972, Borges went to the USA, where he lectured at several universities. The writer was awarded many awards, and in 1973 he received the title of honorary citizen of Buenos Aires and left his post as director of the National Library.

In 1975, the premiere of the film “Dead Man” by Hector Olivera (Spanish Hector Olivera; Argentine film director, screenwriter, producer) based on the story of the same name by Borges took place. That same year, the writer’s mother died, who was 99 years old.

In 1979, Jorge Luis Borges received the Cervantes Prize (Spanish: Premio Miguel de Cervantes; the largest annual award to a living author writing in Spanish), the most prestigious literary award in Spanish-speaking countries.

His later poems were published in the collections "The Doer" (Spanish: "El Hacedor"; 1960), "Praise of the Shadow" (Spanish: "El ogia de la Sombra"; 1969) and "The Gold of the Tigers" (Spanish: "El oro de lostigres"; 1972). His last lifetime publication was the book “Atlas” (Spanish: “Atlas”; 1985) - a collection of poems, fantasy stories and travel notes.

Apolitical politician

Jorge Luis Borges liked to call himself an apolitical person, meanwhile, at times he was actively involved in politics.

Returning to Argentina, he supported the liberal president Hipolito Yrigoyena(Spanish Hipolito Yrigoyen; President of Argentina in 1916-1922 and 1928-1930), the writer hated Peron for his populism and nationalism, called him a swindler and the husband of a whore. In 1950, he was elected president of the opposition Argentine Society of Writers (he held this post for 3 years), which tried to resist the dictatorship, but was soon dissolved. During that period, he wrote the story “The Feast of the Monster” (Spanish: “La Fiesta del Monstruo”), which was distributed only underground.

If during Peron's time Borges's views were considered progressive, then in the 70s. he was “swept to the right”: he joined the Conservative Party. In 1976, the writer came to receive his doctorate from the University of Chile, and there he met with, who awarded him the Order of the Grand Cross. At the ceremony, Borges shook hands with the dictator and made a pompous speech about the need to fight anarchy and communism. Finally, that same year he went to Spain, where he lavished praise on General Franco.

Among the intelligentsia he was considered a reactionary and a fascist. He subsequently claimed that he simply did not know about the carnage carried out by Pinochet. This is quite possible: the blind writer did not read newspapers, he did not have a radio or television. The Argentine generals who carried out the coup in 1976 impressed him only because they were anti-Peronists.

Co-authorship

Back in 1930, Jorge Luis Borges met a 17-year-old (Spanish: Adolfo Bioy Casares; 1914 - 1999) - an aspiring Argentine prose writer, a future major Latin American writer of the 20th century, who became his friend and co-author of a number of works. Jorge Luis with Casares and Silvina Ocampo(Spanish Silvina Ocampo; 1903 - 1993), Argentine writer, participated in the creation of the Anthology of Fantastic Literature (1940) and the Anthology of Argentine Poetry (1941). Together with Casares, he wrote detective stories about Don Isidro Parodi; These works appeared in print under the pseudonyms Bustos Domecq and Suarez Lynch.

In 1965, he collaborated with Jorge Borges (Spanish: Astor Piazzolla), a prominent Argentine musician and composer of the second half of the twentieth century, who composed music for his poems.

The filmography and list of TV and film projects in which screenwriter Jorge Luis Borges took part includes about 46 works.

Recognition and awards

Borges was awarded many national and international literary prizes and awards, and in 1970 the writer was nominated for the Nobel Prize.

The writer was also awarded the highest orders of Italy (1961, 1968, 1984), France (Order of Arts and Letters, 1962; Order of the Legion of Honor, 1983), (Order of the Sun of Peru, 1965), Chile (order, 1976), Germany (order of " For services to Germany", 1979), Iceland (Order of the Icelandic Falcon, 1979), Great Britain (Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1965), Spain (Order of Alfonso X the Wise, 1983), Portugal (Order of Santiago, 1984). The French Academy awarded him a gold medal (1979); he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1968) and an honorary doctorate from leading universities around the world.

Completion of life's journey

At the end of 1985, Borges was diagnosed with liver cancer. He decided to go to Geneva (Switzerland) to die - this is another mystery of the unpredictable writer. Perhaps he was tired of the increased attention of his compatriots, or perhaps he decided to end his life’s journey in the city of his youth. In April 1986, he formalized a civil marriage with Maria Kodama; he bequeathed his entire fortune to her even earlier. And on June 14, at the age of 86, the famous writer died. He is buried in the Geneva Cemetery of the Kings, or Plainpalais Cemetery (French: Cimetière des Rois, Сimetière de Plainpalais).

In February 2009, the Argentine National Congress discussed a proposal to return Borges' ashes to Buenos Aires and rebury them in the famous (Spanish: Cementerio de La Recoleta), where many famous Argentines are buried. The initiative came from representatives of literary circles, but due to the categorical refusal of the writer’s widow, this idea was not implemented.

Walking Oxymoron

Today, many epithets can be used in relation to Borges the writer: unpredictable, mystical, paradoxical, a sort of walking oxymoron (from Greek “witty stupidity”, i.e. a combination of incongruous things). An uneducated erudite, an atheist keen on mysticism, an apolitical dissident, a blind librarian, a blind traveler... He signed protests against the arbitrariness of the Argentine military and, at the same time, all his life he was accused of escapism, an escape from reality. For the short story “Deutsches Requiem” Borges was called a “fascist”, and at the same time, under the guise of literary criticism, he published anti-fascist pamphlets.

From the British he adopted a love of paradoxes, essayistic lightness and entertaining plot. Borges is said to be "an English writer writing in Spanish."

B. appears to be Janus, facing both the past and the future. He wrote and sometimes behaved as if he had been born in the era of the high Middle Ages, during the time of the knights: the cult of heroism and knightly ideals; deification of the book and references to authorities; passion for miracles, visions, dreams; fantasies about non-existent worlds inhabited by monsters; a penchant for compiling all kinds of anthologies; interpretation of sacred texts.

Unlike most writers, whose work is based on their own experience, for Borges the main source is books, as well as imagination and fantasy.

It was books that determined the range of his ideas and feelings, and it was from them that his own harmonious and perfect universe was derived.

Jorge Luis Borges himself and his “writer” characters do not so much create new texts as assemble them from fragments of already prepared texts. What is important here is not the novelty of the material, but its location, which in itself is new. As a rule, a story is written by a character directly in front of the reader, i.e. the author shows creativity itself as an activity.

If we consider his work in a postmodern context, then, according to the author, the reality is that the number of texts is generally limited, that everything ingenious has already been written, and new texts are in principle impossible. There are so many books that it simply doesn’t make sense to write new ones. Therefore, it is not the writer who writes books, but the finished works from the “Universal World Library” who write themselves as writers, and the writer turns out to be simply a “repeater”.

Borges's world consists of texts rather than objects and events; It is from ready-made texts that his works are created. He sees any thing simultaneously from different sides, taking into account all kinds of views and interpretations, he emphasizes the deceptiveness of the world, the limitless complexity of all its phenomena. Borges, well acquainted with world history, creates his own world with unknown tribes and countries, a world of a limitless library and a comprehensive book, without beginning and end. Its main characters are Word and Thought, literature of all times and peoples, images of a materialized dream. He has neither saints nor scoundrels; he is not a judge, he is an observer and researcher.

The gaming principle, which the author established with his authority in the literature of the twentieth century, permeates his entire work, leading to the fact that ontological (life, death) and epistemological (space, time) categories turn into symbols that can be manipulated just as freely, as with literary images. His blindness, as a certain step on the path to death, gave not only a feeling of isolation in the world of images, but also a certain freedom in dealing with the concept of non-existence.

Among other things, the removal of the antithesis “real-unreal” - this concept by the end of the twentieth century became the property of world culture and served to spread the fame of Borges, who felt like a character in a book that he himself was writing. Moreover, he writes a book in which he is described writing a book, in which he writes a book again... and so on ad infinitum, which, apparently, is immortality. Paradox? One word - Borges.

Personal life

Borges was an Enigma in many ways. One of the most mysterious components of this mystery remains his personal life.

He was always surrounded by many women: girlfriends, secretaries, co-authors, reading fans. He admitted that he had more girlfriends than friends. He fell in love constantly; biographers have discovered about 20 such hobbies. Only women did not linger near him - he was too romantic and exalted.

One of his chosen ones is the 23-year-old beauty Estelle Kanto (Spanish: Estelle Kanto), a future famous novelist, whom they met in 1944. Estelle then worked as a secretary, they had common literary tastes, she inspired Borges to write the story “The Aleph” "(Spanish: "El Aleph"), which is considered one of the best works of the writer. Despite his mother's protests, he formally proposed to the girl. Estelle did not refuse, but suggested living in a civil marriage for some time before the wedding, which was quite reasonable, given that in Catholic Argentina an official divorce was impossible. But the writer was horrified by this proposal, and as a result, in 1952 they broke up, and the writer visited a psychoanalyst’s office for the first time.

It is worth mentioning that in Geneva, when Jorge Luis was 19 years old, his father suddenly became concerned about his son’s sexual education and sent him to a prostitute, whose services he apparently used himself. The young man was so worried that nothing came of it. Apparently, it was this episode that forever formed his ambiguous attitude towards intimate life. Undoubtedly, Puritan upbringing and “cold English blood” had an effect. Indeed, almost all the heroes of Borges's stories are men. A few women flash in the writer’s unique world, like night visions. Love scenes are permeated with pathos and romantic patterns.

Several years ago, letters were discovered that Borges wrote in 1921, when his family lived in Mallorca, where he formed a circle of friends who were also aspiring poets. Apparently, young talents preferred to meet in brothels; in some letters he boasts of his successes with prostitutes. However, it was as easy as shelling pears for one of the greatest literary mystifiers, who created virtual universes, to invent several stories about trips to a brothel in order to create even more fog around his person.

Be that as it may, the main woman in the writer’s life was always his mother, Dona Leonor, with whom he lived until her death in 1975. In recent years, they were mistaken for brother and sister: old age erases differences. The mother resolved all household and financial issues, played the role of secretary to her blind son, accompanied him on trips, and protected him from everyday life. “She was always my comrade in everything, and an understanding, forgiving friend... It was she who... contributed to my literary career.” Doña Leonor strictly controlled her son’s personal life, mercilessly cutting off all relations with applicants who did not meet her high standards.

In 1967, the already old and sick mother decided to arrange her son’s fate herself. The story of Borges' marriage and divorce was an obvious farce called " I got married without me" The mother and sister did everything on their own: they found a bride, a homely and respectful widowed friend of their son’s youth - Elsu Astete Miljan(Spanish: Elsa Esteta Millan), bought an apartment and organized a wedding. (He was once in love with Elsa, he even proposed to her, but was refused). After the wedding, the newlywed did not go to the hotel room rented for the newlyweds, but went to spend the night at his mother’s house. And less than 3 years later, Borges simply ran away from his wife and again began to live with Dona Leonor.

After the death of his mother, another woman came into his life, Maria Kodama(Spanish: Maria Kodama). While still studying at the University, Maria enthusiastically listened to Borges' lectures, then became his secretary. Almost 40 years younger than the writer, with a Japanese father and a German mother, she helped the blind writer translate Old Norse literature and introduced him to Japanese culture.

It was Maria Kodama who replaced Borges's deceased mother, accompanying him on trips, dealing with financial and household matters.

They traveled a lot, visiting almost the whole world. This union was reminiscent of a well-known plot: the blind Oedipus, who wanders, leaning on Antigone’s shoulder. Maria was the eyes of Borges, together they compiled a collection of travel notes “Atlas” (Spanish “Atlas”; 1984), his last book about these travels: he owned the text, she owned the photographs. The notes were written over a period of 2-3 years. They are very apt and deep, full of quotes and literary references, they contain irony and erudition. They also have enthusiasm and pleasure for life, they breathe passionate, youthful enthusiasm. The blind writer began writing them at 83 and finished them at 85, seeing the places described through the eyes of Mary.

In recent years, thanks to this fragile woman, tender, serious and deep relationships have appeared in the writer’s life, which allowed him to discover a side of life that he had until now been deprived of. Apparently, Borges and Maria were truly happy.

Shortly before his death, on April 26, 1986, Kodama married the writer, although, contrary to the law, the couple were not personally present at the ceremony. The legality of this marriage is still disputed due to the fact that Jorge Luis Borges did not officially file a divorce from Elsa Milian: there was no divorce procedure in Argentina at that time.

Now Maria Kodama manages the rights to her husband’s literary heritage and runs her husband’s International Foundation.

Memory

In 1990, one of the asteroids was named en:11510 Borges.
In 2001, Argentine film director Juan Carlos Desanzo (Spanish: Juan Carlos Desanzo) made a biographical film about the writer “Love and Fear” (Spanish: “El amor y el espanto”; 6 nominations for the Silver Condor Award, Havana IFF Award), in in which the role of the writer was played by the famous actor Miguel Angel Sola (Spanish: Miguel Angel Sola).
The famous Chilean prose writer, poet and literary critic (Spanish Volodia Teitelboim) wrote “The Two Borges” - a biography of the Argentine writer. In this fascinating book, Teitelboim explores the mystery of the identity of the Great Argentine.
In 2008, a monument to Borges was unveiled in Lisbon. The composition, cast from a sketch by the writer’s fellow countryman, Federico Brook (Spanish: Federico Brook), according to the author, is deeply symbolic. It is a granite monolith in which Borges's bronze palm is inlaid. According to the sculptor, who in the 80s. made a cast of the writer’s hand, this symbolizes the creator himself and his “poetic spirit.” The opening of the monument, installed in one of the parks in the city center, was attended by the writer’s widow, Maria Kodama, prominent figures of Latin American culture and admirers of the writer’s bright talent.

Some quotes

Nothing is built on stone, everything is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.
Every life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is defined by one moment - the moment when a person learns who he is.
Perhaps world history is just the history of a few metaphors.
Eternity is an image created from time.
Life is a dream that God dreams.
Reality is one of the aspects of sleep.
You are in love if you suddenly realized that someone else is unique.
Blessed are the beloved, those who love and those who can do without love.
The original is incorrect in relation to the translation.
It is easier to die for faith than to live according to its commandments.
It always seemed to me that heaven should be something like a library.
A good reader is rarer than a good writer.
Literature is a controlled dream.
Our language is a system of quotations.
Writers create not only followers, but also predecessors.
Fame, like blindness, came to me gradually. I never looked for her.
I love hourglasses, geographical maps, 18th-century publications, etymological studies, the taste of coffee and Stevenson’s prose...
The truth is that we die and are reborn every day. Therefore, the problem of time concerns us all directly.

Curious facts

Someone said that a poet's childhood should be either very happy or completely unhappy. Borges was happy in his parents' house "behind the iron spears of a long lattice, in a house with a garden and books of his father and ancestors." He later wrote that he never left this library - a labyrinth.
Having started writing, B. did not know for a long time which language to give preference to. He even tried to write poetry in French, but soon abandoned this idea. Ultimately, he decided that he should be a Spanish writer.
He first composed many phrases in his books in English, and then translated them into Spanish. The decisive argument for him was that he dreamed in Spanish, and he considered literature to be “controlled by dreams.”
His English was perfectly correct, but terribly old-fashioned - the language of Fanny's grandmother, who left Britain in the mid-19th century.
We all come from childhood. Georgie loved walking around the zoo. He froze for the longest time near the cages with tigers, their black and yellow stripes hypnotized him. In his old age, the blind writer could only distinguish between these two colors: yellow and black.
The mirror in the closet opposite the bed frightened him: it seemed to the boy that someone else was being reflected there. The library in his parents' house seemed to him a mysterious labyrinth. The writer's works are filled with tigers, mirrors and labyrinths.
In 1923, his father gave Jorge Luis 300 pesos to publish his first book. The following year, 27 copies of the collection “Passion for Buenos Aires” were sold. When the son told his mother about this, she commented on the event with great enthusiasm: “Twenty-seven copies! Georgie, you're getting famous!!"
Early in his life, Jorge Luis Borges was an extraordinarily prolific author, publishing more than 250 works in his first 10 years.
He wrote stories, essays, and poems, but did not write a single philosophical treatise, although his works are often cited by cultural scientists and philosophers.
In 1982, in a lecture on “Blindness,” Borges stated: “ If we consider that darkness can be a heavenly blessing, then who...can better study himself? To use a phrase from Socrates, who can know himself better than a blind man?«
At 27, he underwent his first cataract surgery; there were 8 operations in total, but they did not save his vision. By the age of 55, the writer was completely blind.
Real fame came to Borges when he was already over 60. In 1961, he was awarded the prestigious literary Formentor Prize - from that moment on, he gained worldwide fame: he is translated, published in many countries, and invited to give lectures at world universities. By the end of his life, the writer was hung like a Christmas tree with toys, all kinds of prizes, orders, awards, and academic degrees. All that was missing was a Nobel Prize. “I am a futurist,” said Borges, “every year I look forward to being awarded the Nobel Prize.”
One of the greatest writers of the 20th century, Borges did not receive the Nobel Prize because he visited Pinochet and shook his hand. Of course, everyone understood the greatness of the writer, but Pinochet was not forgiven.
Without revealing his disappointment in any way, over the past 20 years, Borges greeted with a clenched heart the news in October that he had once again not been awarded the Nobel Prize. “He tried to seem like an experienced player who didn’t care about losing.”
Jorge Luis has always had a double burden of literary ambitions: his own and his father's. Jorge Guillermo, who was rapidly losing his sight, published only one novel, and even that was not successful. Before his death (in 1938), the father asked his son, who had already become a famous writer, to rewrite the novel. For himself, whose longest literary work is the story “Congress” (14 pages), this became an impossible task.
There is probably no more piercing suffering for a writer than the loss of vision. Borges, who lived to be 87 years old, spent most of his life without seeing the world around him; books saved him. Everything he read was comprehended by him and turned into something written.
In 1987, in the USSR, based on Borges’ story “The Gospel of Mark” (Spanish “Evangelio de Marcos”), director A. Kaidanovsky made a film, the mystical drama “The Guest”.
If Homer was the Great Blind of antiquity, then Borges can be called the Great Blind of the twentieth century.
When B., already quite ill, felt that he was dying, Maria asked if he wanted to invite a priest. The writer agreed with one condition: that there be two of them, one Catholic - in memory of his mother, and one Protestant - in honor of his English grandmother. Originality, unpredictability and humor - Borges until his last breath.

Argentine novelist, poet and publicist

short biography

Jorge Luis Borges(Spanish) Jorge Luis Borges; August 24, 1899, Buenos Aires, Argentina - June 14, 1986, Geneva, Switzerland) - Argentine prose writer, poet and publicist. Borges is known primarily for laconic prose fantasies, often masking discussions about fundamental philosophical problems or taking the form of adventure or detective stories stories. In the 1920s he became one of the founders of avant-gardeism in Spanish-language Latin American poetry.

Childhood

His full name is Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo(Spanish) Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo), however, according to Argentine tradition, he never used it. On his father's side, Borges had Spanish and Irish roots. Borges's mother apparently came from a family of Portuguese Jews (the surnames of her parents - Acevedo and Pinedo - belong to the most famous Jewish families of immigrants from Portugal in Buenos Aires). Borges himself claimed that Basque, Andalusian, Jewish, English, Portuguese and Norman blood flowed in him. Spanish and English were spoken in the house. From an early age, Jorge Luis was interested in poetry, and at the age of four he learned to read and write. In 1905, Borges began studying English with a home teacher. The following year he wrote his first story in Spanish, "La visera fatal".

Borges began schooling at the age of 9, right from the fourth grade. It was an unpleasant experience for the boy, as his classmates made fun of him and his teachers were unable to teach him anything new.

At the age of ten, Borges translated Oscar Wilde's famous fairy tale The Happy Prince. Borges himself described his entry into literature as follows:

From my very childhood, when my father was struck by blindness, it was silently understood in our family that I should accomplish in literature what circumstances did not allow my father to accomplish. This was taken for granted (and such a belief is much stronger than simply expressed wishes). I was expected to be a writer. I started writing when I was six or seven years old.

Life in Europe

In 1914, the family went on vacation to Europe. However, due to the First World War, the return to Argentina was postponed and the family settled in Geneva, where Jorge Luis and his sister Nora went to school. He studied French and entered the College of Geneva, where he began writing poetry in French. In 1918, Jorge moved to Spain, where he joined the Ultraists, an avant-garde group of poets. On December 31, 1919, Jorge Luis's first poem appeared in the Spanish magazine "Greece".

Return to Argentina

Adolfo Bioy Casares,
Victoria Ocampo and Borges (1935)

Returning to Argentina in 1921, Borges embodied ultraism in unrhymed poems about Buenos Aires. Already in his early works he shone with erudition, knowledge of languages and philosophy, and masterful command of words. In his hometown, Borges continues to publish, and also founded his own magazine, Prisma, and then another one called Proa.

In 1923, on the eve of a trip to Europe, Borges published his first book of poetry, The Heat of Buenos Aires, which included 33 poems, and the cover of which was designed by his sister.

Over time, Borges moved away from poetry and began to write “fantasy” prose. Many of his best stories were included in the collections Ficciones (1944), Labyrinths (1960) and Brodie's Message (El Informe de Brodie, 1971). In the story “Death and Compass,” the struggle of human intelligence with chaos is presented as a criminal investigation; the story “Funes, the miracle of memory” paints an image of a person literally flooded with memories, contrasting “supermemory” with logical thinking as a mechanism of generalization. The effect of authenticity of fictional events is achieved by Borges by introducing into the narrative episodes of Argentine history and the names of contemporary writers, facts of his own biography.

After a year in Spain, Borges finally moved to Buenos Aires, where he collaborated with several periodicals and acquired a reputation as a prominent representative of young avant-garde artists. Tired of ultraism, Borges tried to found a new genre of literature that would combine metaphysics and reality. But the writer quickly moved away from this, starting to write fantastic and magical works. In 1930, Borges met 17-year-old writer Adolfo Bio Casares, who became his friend and co-author of many works.

In the 1930s, Borges wrote a large number of essays on Argentine literature, art, history, and cinema. At the same time, he begins to write a column in the magazine “El Hogar”, where he writes reviews of books by foreign authors and biographies of writers. Since its first issue, Borges has been a regular contributor to Sur, Argentina's leading literary magazine, founded in 1931 by Victoria Ocampo. For the Sur publishing house, Borges translates the works of Virginia Woolf. In 1937 he published an anthology of classical Argentine literature. In his works since the 1930s, the writer begins to combine fiction with reality, writes reviews of non-existent books, etc.

The end of the 1930s became difficult for Borges: first he buried his grandmother, then his father. Therefore, he was forced to provide financially for his family. With the help of the poet Francisco Luis Bernardes, the writer became a custodian at the municipal library of Miguel Cane in the Almagro district of Buenos Aires, where he spent time reading and writing books. There, the writer almost died from sepsis, breaking his head. Borges later called his years of work as a librarian, 1937-1946, “nine deeply unhappy years,” although it was during that period that his first masterpieces appeared. After Perón came to power in 1946, Borges was dismissed from his library position.

Jorge Luis Borges, together with Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo, contributed to the creation of the Anthology of Fantastic Literature in 1940 and the Anthology of Argentine Poetry in 1941. Together with Bioy Casares, he wrote detective stories about Don Isidro Parodi; these works appeared in print under the pseudonyms “Bustos Domecq” and “Suarez Lynch”. Borges's work "Ficciones" received the Grand Prix of the Argentine Writers' Union. Under the title Poems (1923-1943), Borges published his poetic works from three previous books in the magazine Sur and the newspaper La Nación.

In August 1944, while visiting Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo, Borges met Estelle Canto, with whom he fell in love. Estelle inspired Borges to write the story "The Aleph", which is considered one of his best works. Despite his mother's resistance, Borges proposed marriage to Esteli, but this never happened. In 1952 their relationship ended.

In the early 1950s, Borges returned to poetry; The poems of this period are mainly elegiac in nature, written in classical meters, with rhyme. In them, as in the rest of his works, the themes of the labyrinth, the mirror and the world, interpreted as an endless book, prevail.

The beginning of the 1950s was marked by recognition of Borges' talent in Argentina and beyond. In 1950, the Argentine Writers' Union elected him as its president, which he served for three years. The first translation of Borges into French, “Fictions” (Spanish Ficciones, 1944), was published in Paris. At the same time, a series of stories “Death and Compass” is published in Buenos Aires, where the struggle of human intellect with chaos is presented as a criminal investigation. In 1952, the writer published an essay on the peculiarities of Argentine Spanish, “The Language of the Argentines.” In 1953, some stories from the collection “Aleph” were translated into French in the form of the book “Intricacies” (French: Labyrinths). In the same year, the publishing house Emecé began publishing the complete works of Borges. In 1954, director Leopoldo Torre Nilsson made the film “Days of Hate” based on the story by Borges.

In 1955, after the military coup that overthrew the Perón government, Borges was appointed director of the National Library of Argentina (although he was already almost blind) and held this post until 1973. In December 1955, the writer was elected a member of the Argentine Academy of Letters. He writes extensively and teaches in the Department of German Literature at the University of Buenos Aires.

In 1967, Borges married his friend from his youth, Elsa Estete Milian, who had recently been widowed. Three years later, however, the couple separated.

In 1972, Jorge Luis Borges travels to the USA, where he receives numerous awards and lectures at several universities. In 1973, he received the title of honorary citizen of Buenos Aires and resigned as director of the National Library.

In 1975, the premiere of the film “Dead Man” by Hector Oliver based on the story of the same name by Borges took place. That same year, the writer’s mother died at the age of 99.

After the death of his mother, Borges was accompanied on his travels by Maria Kodama, whom he married on April 26, 1986.

In 1979, Borges received the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious award for achievements in literature in Spanish-speaking countries.

Borges's later poems were published in the collections The Doer (El Hacedor, 1960), In Praise of the Shadow (Elogia de la Sombra, 1969) and The Gold of the Tigers (El oro de los tigres, 1972). His last lifetime publication was the book Atlas (Atlas, 1985) - a collection of poems, fantasies and travel notes.

In 1986 he moved to Geneva, where he died on June 14 at the age of 86 from liver cancer and emphysema. In February 2009, it was proposed to rebury the remains of Jorge Luis Borges in the Recoleta cemetery in Buenos Aires, but due to the decisive refusal of the writer's widow, this proposal was not implemented.

Creation

Borges is one of the founders and classics of new Latin American literature. Borges's work is metaphysical, it combines fantasy and poetic methods. Borges considers the search for truth futile; among the themes of his work are the contradictory nature of the world, time, loneliness, human destiny, and death. His artistic language is characterized by a mixture of techniques of high and mass culture, a combination of abstract metaphysical universals and the realities of contemporary Argentine culture (for example, the cult of the macho). His prosaic fantasies, often taking the form of adventure or detective stories, mask discussions of serious philosophical and scientific problems ; from his earliest works, the author shone with erudition and knowledge of many languages. His work is characterized by a play on the edge of truth and fiction, frequent hoaxes: references and quotes from non-existent works, fictional biographies and even cultures. Borges, along with Marcel Proust, is considered one of the first writers of the 20th century who turned to the problems of human memory.

Borges had a huge influence on many genres of literature - from the absurd novel to science fiction; His influence has been spoken about by such acclaimed writers as Kurt Vonnegut, Phillip K. Dick and Stanislaw Lem.

Recognition and awards

Borges was awarded a number of national and international literary prizes, including:

1944 - Grand Prix of the Association of Argentine Writers
1956 - Argentine State Prize for Literature
1961 - International Publishing Prize "Formentor" (shared with Samuel Beckett)
1962 - Award of the National Foundation of the Arts of Argentina
1966 - Madonnina, Milan
1970 - Latin American Literary Prize (Brazil), nominated for the Nobel Prize
1971 - Jerusalem Literary Prize
1973 - Alfonso Reyes Award (Mexico)
1976 - Edgar Allan Poe Award
1979 - Cervantes Prize (shared with Gerardo Diego) - the most prestigious award for achievements in the field of literature in Spanish-speaking countries
1979 - World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement

Memorial plaque in Paris
at Beaux-Arts 13, where the writer lived in 1977-1984.

1980 - Chino del Duca International Literary Award
1980 - Balzan Prize - international award for excellence in science and culture
1981 - Prize of the Italian Republic, "Ollin Yolitzli" Prize (Mexico)
1981 - Balrog Award for Fantasy. Special Award
1985 - Etruria Prize
1999 - National Book Critics Circle Award

Borges was awarded the highest orders of Italy (1961, 1968, 1984), France (Order of Arts and Letters, 1962, Legion of Honor, 1983), Peru (Order of the Sun of Peru, 1965), Chile (Order of Bernardo O'Higgins, 1976), Germany (Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1979), Iceland (Order of the Icelandic Falcon, 1979), Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE, 1965), Spain (Order of Alfonso X the Wise, 1983), Portugal (Order of Santiago , 1984). The French Academy awarded him a gold medal in 1979. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1968), and an honorary doctorate from leading universities in the world. In 1990, one of the asteroids was named en:11510 Borges.

After death

Borges died in Geneva on June 14, 1986 and was buried in the Geneva Cemetery of the Kings, not far from John Calvin.

In 2008, a monument to Borges was unveiled in Lisbon. The composition, cast from a sketch by fellow writer Federico Bruc, is, according to the author, deeply symbolic. It is a granite monolith in which Borges's bronze palm is inlaid. According to the sculptor who made a cast of the writer’s hand in the 80s, this symbolizes the creator himself and his “poetic spirit.” The opening of the monument, installed in one of the parks in the city center, was attended by the writer's widow Maria Codama, who heads the foundation named after him, and prominent figures of Portuguese culture, including the writer Jose Saramago.

The Borges archive is housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.

Borges and the work of other artists

In 1965, Astor Piazzolla collaborated with Jorge Luis Borges, composing music for his poems.

More than thirty films have been made based on Borges's works. Among them is the film “Invasion” directed by Hugo Santiago, filmed in 1969 based on the story by Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares. In 1970, Bernardo Bertolucci's film "Strategy of the Spider" was released, based on the Borges story "The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero."

In 1987, based on the story by H. L. Borges “The Gospel of Mark,” the film “The Guest” was shot (directed by A. Kaidanovsky).

Borges was born in 1899 in Buenos Aires. His full name is Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo, however, according to Argentine tradition, he never used it. On his father's side, Borges had Spanish and Irish roots. Borges's mother apparently came from a family of Portuguese Jews (the surnames of her parents - Acevedo and Pinedo - belong to the most famous Jewish families of immigrants from Portugal in Buenos Aires). Borges himself claimed that he had “Basque, Andalusian, Jewish, English, Portuguese and Norman blood.” Spanish and English were spoken in the house. At the age of ten, Borges translated Oscar Wilde's famous fairy tale The Happy Prince.

In 1914, the family went on vacation to Europe. However, due to World War I, the return to Argentina was delayed. In 1918, Jorge moved to Spain, where he joined the Ultraists, an avant-garde group of poets. On December 31, 1919, Jorge Luis's first poem appeared in the Spanish magazine "Greece". Returning to Argentina in 1921, Borges embodied ultraism in unrhymed poems about Buenos Aires. Already in his early works he shone with erudition, knowledge of languages and philosophy, and masterful command of words. Over time, Borges moved away from poetry and began to write “fantasy” prose. Many of his best stories were included in the collections Ficciones (1944), Labyrinths (1960) and Brodie's Message (El Informe de Brodie, 1971). In the story “Death and Compass,” the struggle of human intelligence with chaos is presented as a criminal investigation; The story “Funes, the miracle of memory” paints an image of a man literally flooded with memories.

In 1937-1946, Borges worked as a librarian; he later called this time “nine deeply unhappy years,” although it was during that period that his first masterpieces appeared. After Perón came to power in 1946, Borges was dismissed from his library position. Fate again returned him the position of librarian in 1955, and a very honorable one - director of the National Library of Argentina - but by that time Borges was blind. Borges held the post of director until 1973.

Jorge Luis Borges, together with Adolfo Bio Casares and Silvina Ocampo, participated in the creation of the famous Anthology of Fantastic Literature in 1940 and the Anthology of Argentine Poetry in 1941.

Recognition and awards

Since the 1960s. Borges was awarded a number of national and international literary prizes, including:

1956 - Argentine State Prize for Literature

1961 - International Publishing Prize "Formentor" (shared with Samuel Beckett)

1970 - Latin American Literary Prize (Brazil)

Best of the day

1971 - Jerusalem Literary Prize

1979 - Cervantes Prize (together with Gerardo Diego) - the most prestigious award for achievements in the field of literature in Spanish-speaking countries.

1980 - Chino del Duca International Literary Award

1980 - Balzan Prize - international award for excellence in science and culture

Borges was awarded the highest orders of Italy (1961, 1968, 1984), France (1962), Peru (1964), Chile (1976), Germany (1979), Iceland (1979), the Order of the British Empire (1965) and the Legion of Honor ( 1983). The French Academy awarded him a gold medal in 1979. He was elected a member of the Academy in the USA (1967), an honorary doctorate from leading universities in the world.

After death

Borges died in Geneva on June 14, 1986 and was buried in the Geneva Royal Cemetery, not far from John Calvin. In February 2009, the Argentine National Congress will consider a bill to return the ashes of Jorge Luis Borges to Buenos Aires. This initiative comes from representatives of literary circles, but the writer’s widow, who heads the foundation named after him, objects to the transfer of Borges’ remains to Argentina.

In 2008, a monument to Borges was unveiled in Lisbon. The composition, cast from a sketch by fellow writer Federico Bruc, is, according to the author, deeply symbolic. It is a granite monolith in which Borges's bronze palm is inlaid. According to the sculptor who made a cast of the writer’s hand in the 80s, this symbolizes the creator himself and his “poetic spirit.” The opening of the monument, installed in one of the parks in the city center, was attended by the writer's widow Maria Kodama, who heads the foundation named after him, and prominent figures of Portuguese culture, including Nobel laureate Jose Saramago.

Borges and the work of other artists

In 1965, Piazzolla collaborated with Jorge Luis Borges, composing music for his poems.

In 1969, Bernardo Bertolucci directed the film The Strategy of the Spider (Italian: La Strategia Del Ragno), based on Borges' story “The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero.”

Borges is depicted in the novel “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco.

In 2009, as part of the photo biennale “Fashion and Style in Photography,” the exhibition “Enchantments of the Yellow Emperor” by Belarusian photographers Andrei Shukin, Denis Nedelsky and Alexei Shlyk opened. According to the organizers, the exhibition project arose after reading Borges’ book of the same name.

Jorge Luis Borges (Spanish: Jorge Luis Borges; August 24, 1899, Buenos Aires, Argentina - June 14, 1986, Geneva, Switzerland) - Argentine prose writer, poet and publicist. Borges is known primarily for laconic prose fantasies, often masking discussions about fundamental philosophical problems or taking the form of adventure or detective stories. In the 1920s he became one of the founders of avant-gardeism in Spanish-language Latin American poetry.

His full name is Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (Spanish: Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo), however, according to Argentine tradition, he never used it. On his father's side, Borges had Spanish and Irish roots. Borges's mother apparently came from a family of Portuguese Jews (the surnames of her parents - Acevedo and Pinedo - belong to the most famous Jewish families of immigrants from Portugal in Buenos Aires).

Borges himself claimed that Basque, Andalusian, Jewish, English, Portuguese and Norman blood flowed in him. Spanish and English were spoken in the house. From an early age, Jorge Luis was interested in poetry, and at the age of four he learned to read and write. In 1905, Borges began studying English with a home teacher. The following year he wrote his first story, "La visera fatal".

At the age of ten, Borges translated Oscar Wilde's famous fairy tale The Happy Prince.

Returning to Argentina in 1921, Borges embodied ultraism in unrhymed poems about Buenos Aires. Already in his early works he shone with erudition, knowledge of languages and philosophy, and masterful command of words. In his hometown, Borges continued to publish, and also founded his own magazine, Prisma, and then another one called Proa.

In 1923, on the eve of a trip to Europe, Borges published his first book of poetry, The Heat of Buenos Aires, which included 33 poems, and the cover of which was designed by his sister.

The beginning of the 1950s was marked by recognition of Borges' talent in Argentina and beyond. In 1950, the Argentine Writers' Union elected him as its president, which he served for three years. The first translation of Borges into French, “Fictions” (Spanish Ficciones, 1944), was published in Paris. At the same time, a series of stories “Death and Compass” is published in Buenos Aires, where the struggle of human intellect with chaos is presented as a criminal investigation. In 1952, the writer published an essay on the peculiarities of Argentine Spanish, “The Language of the Argentines.” In 1953, some stories from the collection “Aleph” were translated into French in the form of the book “Intricacies” (French: Labyrinths). In the same year, the publishing house Emecé began publishing the complete works of Borges. 1954 director Leopoldo Torre Nilsson makes the film “Days of Hate” based on the story by Borges.

In 1975, the premiere of the film “Dead Man” by Hector Oliver based on the story of the same name by Borges took place. The same year, at the age of 99, the writer’s mother dies. From now on, Maria Kodama accompanies him on his travels, whom he marries on April 26, 1986.

In 1979, Borges received the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious award for achievements in literature in Spanish-speaking countries.

Bibliography of Jorge Luis Borges: