Julio Cortázar

Born in 1914, Julio Florencio Cortázar spent his early decades in Argentina before leaving for France in 1951, a move that would last over thirty years. He also lived in Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, writing across borders in a Spanish that carried no fixed address. As one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, he published novels, short stories, essays, poems, and translations that influenced readers and writers across two continents. He became a naturalised French citizen but remained tethered to the Spanish-speaking world until his death in Paris in 1984.