“There is no whole self. He who defines personal identity as the private possession of some depository of memories is mistaken.” – Jorge Luis Borges, “The Nothingness of Personality”; translated by Esther Allen; page 4, 1922 in Jorge Luis Borges Selected Non-Fictions, Viking, 1999.
August 24 was the 120th anniversary of the birth of the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. I often write Borges-related posts around each year’s anniversary, as I did last year, with “33 Eclectic Books About Jorge Luis Borges,” and “19 Eclectic Books for 119 Years of Borges.”
Here are 20 links (plus one bonus) that should provide multiple angles of approaching and appreciating this timeless author:
BBC Culture: Is Borges the 20th Century’s most important writer?
BBC Radio 4: Jorge Luis Borges (discussion by Melvyn Bragg and others)
Borges Center/University of Pittsburgh: Explore Borges’ Life and Work
Brain Pickings: Reads tagged with “Jorge Luis Borges”
Commonweal: An Interview with Jorge Luis Borges: Reality Is Perplexing Enough
Google Doodles Archive: 112th Birthday of Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 2011)
The Guardian: Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
Harry Ransom Center University of Texas at Austin: Jorge Luis Borges: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Jorge Luis Borges’ love for Israel and Jews revealed in new book
Library of Congress: With Borges: A Conversation with María Kodama (interview by Saúl Sosnowski)
Literary Hub: Alberto Manguel on Reading Aloud to Borges; In Conversation with Paul Holdengraber
Literary Hub: Borges is Still Dead. (Or Is He? And Which Borges?) On the 30th Anniversary of the Death of Jorge Luis Borges (2016)
Literary Hub: How Borges Taught Me to Embrace My Jewish Heritage: “Borges was my rabbinical master in a Yeshiva the Size of the Globe”; by Ilan Stavans
New Directions Books: Jorge Luis Borges
NPR: Borges, The Universe and The Infinite Library
Open Culture: Jorge Luis Borges Selects 74 Books for Your Personal Library
Penguin Random House: Jorge Luis Borges
Poetry Foundation: Jorge Luis Borges 1899-1986
TEDEd: Infinity according to Jorge Luis Borges – Ilan Stavans
University of Virginia Library: Jorge Luis Borges Collection (Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library)
Bonus link:
The Atlantic: From the Archives: ‘The Labyrinth,’ a Poem by Jorge Luis Borges
In the coming year, there will undoubtedly be new discoveries and insights into the work of Borges. In the meantime, the above links should be enough to keep even the most dedicated follower busy until we reach Borges at 121.
{This post originally appeared on my LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20-assorted-links-celebrating-120-years-jorge-luis-bruce-rosenstein/}