Jorge Guillermo Borges (24 February 1874 – 14 February 1938) was an Argentine lawyer, teacher, writer, philosopher and translator. He was also an anarchist and a follower of

Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression " survival of the fi ...

's philosophy. He's also a notable figure for being

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...

’s father.

Background

In 1898, he married Leonor Acevedo Suárez with whom he had two children: writer

and painter

Norah Borges Leonor Fanny "Norah" Borges Acevedo (March 4, 1901 – July 20, 1998), was a visual artist and art critic, member of the Florida group, and sister of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. Early life and source of nickname She was the daught ...

. Due to the failing eyesight that would eventually afflict his son, Borges eventually abandoned his law career and the family moved to

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, Switzerland before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, where the young Jorge Luis was treated by an eye specialist. In 1921, the Borges family returned to Argentina. Known for his Spencerian

philosophical anarchist Philosophical anarchism is an anarchist school of thought which focuses on intellectual criticism of authority, especially political power, and the legitimacy of governments. The American anarchist and socialist Benjamin Tucker coined the term '' ...

ideas, Jorge Guillermo Borges studied law in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

along with his lifelong friend Macedonio Fernández. He did not practice law and turned to literature instead, allegedly writing one novel: ''El Caudillo'', published in Palma de Mallorca in 1921. Inserted in a typical criollista literary tendency of the time —that would later be taken up by Jorge Luis in his stories and poems— the novel generates ambiguous sensations that lead its reader to believe that —in what would later become pure magic realism— such a text could be the novel that Jorge Guillermo never wrote. Borges had maternal ancestral roots in Staffordshire, England. A cultivated man, he read fluently in English, was an agnostic, a

skeptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the ...

, and had a deep interest in

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

. At the homes where he settled with his wife and family both in Palermo and Geneva, he kept a large library offering his children a complex and profound universe. On those bookshelves, young Jorge Luis and Norah could find important works in English literature: Stevenson,

Hawthorne Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne may also refer to: Places Australia *Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane Canada * Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario United States * Hawt ...

, Wells,

Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...

Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much o ...

De Quincey Thomas Penson De Quincey (; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quince ...

, Poe, and Melville. His son would later remark that "if I were asked to name the chief event in my life, I should say my father's library."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borges, Jorge Guillermo 1874 births 1938 deaths Argentine philosophers Argentine male writers Argentine translators Individualist anarchists English–Spanish translators Burials at La Recoleta Cemetery Argentine people of Spanish descent Argentine people of Portuguese descent Argentine people of English descent Argentine people of Uruguayan descent Jorge Luis Borges 20th-century Argentine writers 20th-century male writers