A Literary Biography of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
(With grateful acknowledgement of the work of Gene H. Bell-Villada of the University of North
Carolina, and The Garden of Forking Paths website)
1899
Born August 24 in Buenos Aires, where he would live most of his life; Son of Jorge
Guillermo Borges, a lawyer, and Leonor Acevedo de Borges, a proud Argentine who
filled the house on Serrano Street with military relics from her family’s freedomfighting heritage. Borges’s paternal grandmother, Frances Haslam de Borges, lives
with them.
As a child, Borges spends many hours in his grandmother’s library, reading books in
English. He grows to love Robert Louis Stevenson and the mystery writer G.K.
Chesterton, among many, many, many others…Borges himself maintained that his
first serious and formative literary experiences were in English rather than Spanish,
with the most notable exception of Cervantes (exception mine)!
1906
Borges’s translation of Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince appears in a newspaper.
1912
Publishes a short story, El Rey de la Selva (King of the Jungle).
1914
The Borges family leaves for Europe, living in Switzerland when war breaks out.
Borges attends lycée in Geneva. He learns French, German, and Latin, and expands
his literary universe accordingly.
1916
Hipólito Irigoyen, the first Radical president, is elected in Argentina. Radicals remain
in power until 1930.
1918
Borges graduates from lycée. He travels and lives in Spain, where he meets members
of the ultraista circle and publishes poetry.
1921
The family returns to Buenos Aires. With financial aid from his father, Fervor de
Buenos Aires, a book of poems, is published. Borges founds, edits, and publishes
work in little magazines.
1923
The family leaves again for Europe. Borges spends a year in Spain, learning to love
Andalusia even more…
1924
The family returns to Buenos Aires.
1925
Luna de enfrente (Moon Across the Bay) poems, and Inquisiciones (Inquisitions),
essays.
1926
El tamaño de mi esperanza (The Extent of My Hope), essays.
1928
El idioma de los argentinos (The Language of the Argentines), essays.
1929
Cuaderno San Martin (San Martin Notebook), a book of poems, wins second prize in
the annual Buenos Aires municipal literary contest. Borges buys an eleventh edition
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
1930
A right-wing army coup deposes the Radical government of Hipólito Irigoyen.
Evaristo Carriego, essays.
1932
Civilian government is restored; the Conservatives retain de facto power throughout
the 1930’s.
1933
Borges is appointed literary editor for the weekly arts supplement of Crítica, a
tabloid.
1935
Borges’s paternal grandmother, Frances Haslam de Borges, dies after living with the
family for many years.
Historia universal de la infamia (A Universal History of Infamy), Borges’s first book
of stories, is published. These stories are the true tales of notorious criminals from all
over the world, as the title implies…N.B. This book is available immediately from
Burrus!!
1936
Historia de la eternidad (A History of Eternity), essays.
1937
Borges’s father dies. Borges begins work as an assistant cataloger in a small branch
library.
1938
Borges suffers a head wound, develops septicemia (blood poisoning), and barely
escapes death.
1939
Borges spends several weeks in the hospital. He begins writing his most important
stories.
1941
El jardin de senderos que se bifurcan (The Garden of Forking Paths), a collection of
eight stories, is published. This collection would later become the first part of
Ficciones, our IB-approved “work” by Borges.
The government of Ramón Castillo openly favors the Axis powers.
1942
The Garden of Forking Paths is nominated for the National Literary Prize, but
another author wins. Sur magazine, an avant-garde literary journal, puts out the
“Desagravio a Borges” (“Vindication of Borges”), a special issue in which twentyone literary friends and acquaintances write in his defense.
1943
Anti-British military officers seize governmental power.
1944
Ficciones, a collection of stories in two parts, is published. The first part is the eightstory collection The Garden of Forking Paths, and the second part is a new collection
of nine stories, Artifices. Each of the two parts begins with a Preface written
specifically for Ficciones. N. B. Our text, Labyrinths, includes thirteen of the
seventeen ficciones. Two more will be provided on handouts. The book Ficciones
itself is available for immediate viewing, and the two stories we won’t study in class
are available semi-immediately.
1946
General Juan Domingo Perón is elected to the presidency by majority vote. Borges is
removed from his library post, and he is offered a position as a poultry inspector,
which he declines. He begins teaching and lecturing.
1949
El Aleph, (The Aleph), stories. This volume includes both The Aleph and The Zahir!
1951
Ficciones is published in Paris, the first foreign translation of a Borges book.
1952
Otras Inquisiciones (Other Inquisitions), essays.
Eva Perón dies.
1955
Perón government falls to a revolt by centrist army officers. Perón flees to Spain.
Borges is appointed director of the National Library. He becomes almost completely
blind.
1956
New edition of Ficciones, with three additional stories.
1957
The University of Buenos Aires names Borges Professor of English Literature.
With Margarita Guerrero, Manual de zoologica fantástica (A Handbook of Fantastic
Zoology), vignettes.
1960
El hacedor (English version: Dreamtigers), poems and short fictions.
1961
Shares, with Samuel Beckett (!!), the first Formentor Prize, an international award
granted by a group of European and American publishers. Teaches a semester at the
University of Texas.
1962
Labyrinths and Ficciones, the first English collections of Borges’s work, are
published (by rival publishers, I might add), in New York City, the greatest city in the
world (outside of France). London’s pretty cool, too… Borges loved London, perhaps
even more than I do!
1963
Visits and lectures in Europe.
1965
Travels in other Latin American countries.
1967
Marries Elsa Astete Millán.
1967-68
Borges holds the Charles Eliot Norton Chair of Poetry at Harvard University.
Delivers lectures all across the United States. These excellent lectures are
available…I believe you might even find them on cassettes or CD’s! How cool is
THAT?
1968
El libro de los seres imaginarios ( The Book of Imaginary Beings), an expanded
version of the earlier Manual de zoologica fantástica. N.B. This great book of
scholarly vignettes tracing the stories of just about every imaginary creature known
on our planet is available immediately from Burrus!
Travels in Europe. Receives an honorary doctorate from Oxford University and
numerous official honors on the continent.
1969
El informe de Brodie (Doctor Brodie’s Report), stories. Elogio de la sombra (In
Praise of Darkness), poetry. Visits and lectures in Israel.
1970
Borges is divorced.
1971
Honorary doctorate from Columbia University. Borges also wins the Jerusalem Prize.
1972
El oro de los tigres (Gold of the Tigers), poetry and prose.
1973
Perón is re-elected to the Presidency in Argentina.
Borges resigns his post at the National Library. Receives major prizes in Spain and
Mexico.
1974
Obras completas (Complete Works) is published in a single volume.
1975
El libro de arena (The Book of Sand), stories. La rosa profunda (The Deep Rose),
poetry. Prólogos, (Prologues), collected prefaces. Borges’s mother dies at age 99.
1976
La moneda de hierro (The Iron Coin), poetry. With Adolpho Bioy Casares, his dear
friend, he writes Crónicas de Bustos Domecq (The Chronicles of Bustos Domecq),
satirical sketches, which are presented as the profound musings of an imaginary (and
self-appointed?) critic named Bustos Domecq. Just call me Bustos, OK?
Borges lectures at Michigan State University and attends a conference in Maine.
A right-wing army coup overthrows the government of Isabel Perón.
1977
Borges lectures in Buenos Aires and throughout Argentina.
1978
Travels in Europe.
1979
Borges turns 80. He lives quietly in Buenos Aires and travels extensively with Maria
Kodama, who takes photographs to record their experiences. Borges pets a tiger.
1984
The couple collaborates to produce Atlas, a travelogue which presents their journeys
as a mythical voyage of discovery through both time and space by combining her
photographs with his written descriptions and musings on their travels.
1986
Borges marries Maria Kodama. He dies on June 14, in Geneva, of liver cancer.