Profession: short-story writer

Jorge Luis Borges

J. L. Borges

short-story writer, essayist, poet, translator

1899 (Buenos Aires) – 1986 (Geneva)

Cansinos-Assens was an early mentor to Borges in Madrid. Fernandez was both friend and mentor back in Buenos Aires. Ocampo published his early work, and through her he met Reyes and Bioy Casares, who became a literary collaborator and lifelong friend. Neruda was another good friend, despite differences of opinion, while his relationship with Lorca (who did not like his poetry) was somewhat prickly. He may have met Calvino only once, near the end of their lives. Burgess joked to Borges that their names were the same; they spoke Anglo-Saxon with one another.

Jorge Luis Borges knew…

Henry James

novelist, short-story writer, critic

1843 (New York) – 1916 (London)

William James was his brother, Thackeray a house-guest of their parents. He was photographed as a boy by Brady, writing about it as an adult. Howells published much of his writing. He befriended Morris, Rossetti, Ruskin, Browning, Eliot and Tennyson when he moved to London, and befriended Zola, Turgenev and Flaubert when he lived in France. Stevenson and Conrad were among his correspondents, Conrad and Wells becoming neighbours when he moved to Rye, Wells not entirely flatteringly basing a character on him. Wharton, a good friend, helped him financially and campaigned in vain for him to get a Nobel Prize.

Henry James knew…