In 1961, Borges shared the International Publishers' prize with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, Columbia University awarded him the first of many degrees of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, that he was to receive from the English-speaking world -- eventually, the list included both Oxford and Cambridge universities. In 1971 he also received the fifth biennial Jerusalem Prize and in 1973 was given one of Mexico's most prestigious cultural awards, the Alfonso Reyes Prize. In 1980 he shared with Gerardo Diego the Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary accolade.
Borges was director of the Argentine National Library from 1955 until 1973.
Author biography courtesy of Penguin Group (USA)
To the outrage of his followers, Borges never did receive the Nobel prize. "Not granting me the Nobel Prize has become a Scandinavian tradition," Borges once quipped. "Since I was born they have not been granting it to me."
Several of Borges's short stories have been adapted for the movies, most recently Death and the Compass (1996), directed by Alex Cox (Repo Man).
| Introduction | ||
| Notes on the Text | ||
| Further Reading | ||
| Acknowledgements | ||
| Alfarabi | 1 | |
| The New-born Star | 3 | |
| St. Dunstan | 4 | |
| Thoughts | 5 | |
| To Night | 5 | |
| Another | 6 | |
| A Clock Striking Midnight | 6 | |
| Lines (Written in ...'Prometheus Unbound') | 8 | |
| Lines (Written at Geneva; July 16 [1824]) | 8 | |
| Sonnet (To Tartar, a Terrier beauty) | 10 | |
| To B. W. Procter, Esq., May 1825 | 11 | |
| Another Letter to the Same, March 1826 | 13 | |
| Resurrection Song | 17 | |
| From the German of Raupach | 17 | |
| The Ghosts' Moonshine | 18 | |
| Song from the German of Walther von der Vogelweide | 19 | |
| Written in an Album at Clifton | 20 | |
| Epilogue to Ernest's Story | 23 | |
| Song of the Stygian Naiades | 23 | |
| Silenus in Proteus | 25 | |
| Lord Alcohol | 25 | |
| Thanatos to Kenelm and the Song by Thanatos | 26 | |
| Doomsday | 28 | |
| Dream-Pedlary | 30 | |
| The Phantom-Wooer | 32 | |
| Lines Written in Switzerland | 33 | |
| On Himself | 35 | |
| from The Brides' Tragedy, 1822 | 36 | |
| from The Last Man and Other Projected Plays, 1823-5 | 53 | |
| from Love's Arrow Poisoned, 1823-5 | 62 | |
| from Torrismond: An Unfinished Drama, 1824 | 67 | |
| from The Second Brother: A Tragedy, 1824-5 | 69 | |
| from Death's Jest-Book, 1825-48 | 72 | |
| fragments of Death's Jest-Book | 111 | |
| Beddoes's Last Letter | 112 | |
| Notes | 113 |
Overview