33 Eclectic Books About Jorge Luis Borges

Last week, to honor the August 24, 1899 birth of the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges, I wrote about 19 Eclectic Books for 119 Years of Borges. This week I explore 33 books about him, covering many aspects of his life, thinking, and work. The inspiration for the post is the release this May, by The University of Virginia Press, of How Borges Wrote, by Daniel Balderston, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, director of The Borges Center, which is based at the University, and editor of Variaciones Borges.

All of the books are in English (though some are translations from Spanish), with the exception of Borges y La Cábala. La búsqueda del verbo; by Saúl Sosnowski, a professor at the University of Maryland. I previously wrote about my connection to Saúl in my 2017 post 6 Success Strategies of Jorge Luis Borges, and in the 2010 post 111 Years of Jorge Luis Borges.

The combined books from last week and this post add up to exactly one for each week of the year, for reading/studying. If anyone approaches it that way, please let me know!

Borges, a Life; by Edwin Williamson

Borges: A Life; by James Woodall

Borges, a Writer on the Edge. Borges Studies Online; by Beatriz Sarlo

Borges and His Fiction: A Guide to His Mind and Art, Revised Edition; by Gene H. Bell-Villada

Borges and Kafka: Sons and Writers; by Sarah Roger

Borges and Memory: Encounters with the Human Brain; by Rodrigo Quian Quiroga

Borges and Space; by Bill Richardson

Borges and the Eternal Orangutans; by Luis Fernando Verissimo

Borges y La Cábala. La búsqueda del verbo; by Saúl Sosnowski

Borges in 90 Minutes; by Paul Strathern

Borges, the Jew; by Ilan Stavans

Borges: The Passion of an Endless Quotation, Second Edition; by Lisa Block de Behar; translated and with an introduction by William Egginton

Borges’s Poe: the Influence and Reinvention of Edgar Allan Poe in Spanish America; by Emron Esplin

Borges’ Short Stories: a Reader’s Guide; by Rex Butler

Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges; edited By Edwin Williamson

Georgie & Elsa: Jorge Luis Borges and His Wife, the Untold Story; by Norman Thomas Di Giovanni

How Borges Wrote; by Daniel Balderston

Humor in Borges; by René de Costa

Jorge Luis Borges; by Jason Wilson

Jorge Luis Borges: Modern Critical Views; edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom

Jorge Luis Borges, Post-Analytic Philosophy, and Representation; by Silvia G. Dapía

Kant’s Dog: on Borges, Philosophy, and the Time of Translation; by David E. Johnson

Lesson of the Master: on Borges and His Work; by Norman Thomas Di Giovanni

Letters to Borges; by Stephen Kuusisto

The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story; by John T. Irwin

Painting Borges: Philosophy Interpreting Art Interpreting Literature; by Jorge J.E. Gracia

Postcolonial Borges: Argument and Artistry; by Robin Fiddian

Quest for God in the Work of Borges; by Annette U. Flynn

Reading Borges After Benjamin: Allegory, Afterlife, and the Writing of History; by Kate Jenckes

Thinking with Borges; William Egginton and David E. Johnson, editors

The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges’ Library of Babel; by William Goldbloom Block

With Borges; by Alberto Manguel

You Might Be Able to Get There From Here: Reconsidering Borges and the Postmodern; by Mark Frisch

These books are ultra-intriguing, and have some of the coolest titles on the planet. Scholars will continue to explore multiple aspects of Borges’ life and writing years into the future. He has provided a rich body of work that is unlikely to lose its appeal, or its mystery.