Jorge Luis Borges Poses with Bread Basket on His Head During a Light Moment

Let’s give three cheers and quick­ly cel­e­brate the birth­day of the Argen­tine writer Jorge Luis Borges, born on this day in 1899. Above, we have a pho­to of Borges tak­en dur­ing a seem­ing­ly fes­tive moment. Accord­ing to the blog Me and My Big Mouth, the pho­to comes from the col­lec­tion of Nor­man Thomas di Gio­van­ni, whose biog­ra­phy Georgie and Elsa — Jorge Luis Borges and His Wife: The Untold Sto­ry will hit book­stores on Sep­tem­ber 2 (though it can be pre-ordered now). Paul Ther­oux calls the bio “a long, sat­is­fy­ing and pen­e­trat­ing gaze into the pri­vate life of an acknowl­edged genius, his work, his eva­sions, and his pecu­liar heartaches.”

If you care to turn this cel­e­bra­tion into a full-day affair, we’d rec­om­mend lis­ten­ing to Borges’ 1967–8 Nor­ton Lec­tures on Poet­ry, record­ed at Har­vard. The 9 lec­tures pro­vide hours of intel­lec­tu­al stim­u­la­tion. Or watch the free doc­u­men­tary, Jorge Luis Borges: The Mir­ror Man, which one review­er called  a “bit of every­thing – part biog­ra­phy, part lit­er­ary crit­i­cism, part hero-wor­ship, part book read­ing, and part psy­chol­o­gy.” 

 You can find a few more Borges favorites from our archive right below.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Jorge Luis Borges’ Favorite Short Sto­ries (Read 7 Free Online)

Borges Explains The Task of Art

Two Draw­ings by Jorge Luis Borges Illus­trate the Author’s Obses­sions

Jorge Luis Borges, After Going Blind, Draws a Self-Por­trait

Jorge Luis Borges, Film Crit­ic, Reviews Cit­i­zen Kane — and Gets a Response from Orson Welles