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{{Short description|Argentine novelist (1914–1999)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2014}}▼
{{
{{Infobox person
| caption = Bioy Casares in 1968 ▲ | death_date = {{death date and age|1999|3|8|1914|9|15}}
▲ | death_place = [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]]
| notable_works = ''[[The Invention of Morel]]''
▲ | resting_place = [[La Recoleta Cemetery]], [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]]
| spouse = {{Marriage|[[Silvina Ocampo]]|1940|1993|end=d}}
▲ | occupation = Writer, poet, critic, librarian
}}
==Biography==
Adolfo Bioy Casares was born on September 15, 1914, in [[Buenos Aires]], the only child of Adolfo Bioy Domecq and Marta Ignacia Casares [[Patrick Lynch (Argentina)|Lynch]]. He was born in [[Recoleta, Buenos Aires|Recoleta]], a neighborhood of Buenos Aires traditionally inhabited by upper-class families, where he would reside the majority of his life. Due to his family's high social class, he was able to dedicate himself exclusively to [[literature]] and, at the same time, distinguish his work from the traditional literary medium of his time. He wrote his first story ("Iris y Margarita") at the age of eleven. He began his secondary education in the [[Instituto Libre de Segunda Enseñanza]] at the [[Universidad de Buenos Aires]]. Later, he started but did not end up finishing degrees in [[law]], [[philosophy]], and [[literature]]. Fueled by disappointment with the university atmosphere, he moved to a family ranch where, when he didn't have visitors, he devoted himself almost entirely to his study of literature. By the time he reached his late twenties, he maintained proficiency in [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]] (which he spoke from the age of 4) and [[German language|German]]. Between 1929 and 1937 Bioy Casares published a number of books (''Prólogo'', ''17 disparos contra lo porvenir'', ''Caos'', ''La nueva tormenta'', ''La estatua casera'', ''Luis Greve, muerto'') that he would later disdain, restricting additional publications
In 1932 he met [[Jorge Luis Borges]] at Villa Ocampo, a house in [[San Isidro Partido|San Isidro]] belonging to [[Victoria Ocampo]]. There, she often hosted different international figures and organized cultural celebrations, one of which brought Borges and Bioy Casares together. Bioy Casares recalled that on that particular occasion, the two writers stepped away from the rest of the guests, only to be reprimanded by Ocampo.<ref>[http://edant.clarin.com/suplementos/cultura/1999/08/22/e-01501d.htm «El tercer hombre.» 22 de agosto de 1999.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821080316/http://edant.clarin.com/suplementos/cultura/1999/08/22/e-01501d.htm |date=August 21, 2016 }} ''Clarín''.</ref> This reproach provoked them to leave the gathering and return to the city together. The journey sealed a lifelong friendship and many influential literary collaborations. Under the pseudonyms [[Honorio Bustos Domecq|H. Bustos Domecq]] and Benito Suárez Lynch, the two teamed up on a variety of projects from short stories (''Seis problemas para don Isidro Parodi'', ''Dos fantasías memorables'', ''Un modelo para la muerte''), to screenplays (''Los orilleros'', ''Invasión''), and fantastic fiction (''Antología de la literatura fantástica'', ''Cuentos breves y extraordinarios''). Between 1945 and 1955, they directed "El séptimo círculo" ("The Seventh Circle"), a collection of translations of popular English [[detective fiction]], a genre that Borges greatly admired. In 2006, ''Borges'', a biographical volume of more than 1600 pages from Bioy Casares' journals, revealed many additional details of the friendship shared by the two writers. Bioy Casares had already prepared and corrected the texts some time previously, but he never was able to publish them himself.
In 1940, he published the short novel ''[[The Invention of Morel]]'', which marked the beginning of his literary maturity. The novel's introduction was written by Borges, in which he comments on the absence of precursors to science fiction in Spanish literature, presenting Bioy Casares as the pioneer of a new genre. The novella was very well accepted and received the Primer Premio Municipal de Literatura (First Municipal Prize of Literature) in 1941. During this same time, in collaboration with Borges and Silvina Ocampo, he published two anthologies: ''Antología de la literatura fantástica'' (1940) y ''Antología poética argentina'' (1941).
[[File:La invención de Morel.JPG|thumb|left|La invención de Morel, Cover first edition, 1940]]
In 1940, Bioy Casares married [[Silvina Ocampo]], Victoria's sister, who was a painter as well as a writer. In 1954, one of Bioy Casares' mistresses gave birth in the United States to his daughter, Marta, who was subsequently adopted by his wife Silvina. Marta was killed in an automobile accident just three weeks after Silvina Ocampo's death, leaving Adolfo with two children. The estate of Silvina Ocampo and Adolfo Bioy Casares was awarded by a Buenos Aires court to yet another love child of Adolfo Bioy Casares, Fabián Bioy. Fabián Bioy died, aged 40, in [[Paris, France]], on 11 February 2006.
Bioy won several awards, including the Gran Premio de Honor of SADE (the Argentine Society of Writers, 1975), the French [[Legion of Honour]] (1981), the Diamond [[Konex Award]] of Literature (1994) the title of Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires (1986), and the [[Miguel de Cervantes Prize]] (awarded to him in 1991 in [[Alcalá de Henares]]). Adolfo Bioy Casares is buried in [[La Recoleta Cemetery]], Buenos Aires.
==Works==
The best-known novel by Bioy Casares is ''La invención de Morel'' (''[[The Invention of Morel]]''). It is the story of a man who, evading justice, escapes to an island said to be infected with a mysterious fatal disease. Struggling to understand why everything seems to repeat, he realizes that all the people he sees there are actually recordings, made with a special machine, invented by Morel, which is able to record not only three-dimensional images, but also voices and scents, making it all indistinguishable from reality. The story mixes [[Literary realism|realism]], [[fantasy]], science fiction and [[fear|terror]]. Borges wrote an introduction in which he called it a work of "reasoned imagination" and linked it to [[H. G. Wells]]' ''oeuvre''. Both Borges and [[Octavio Paz]] described the novel as "perfect". The story is held to be the inspiration for Alan Resnais's ''[[Last Year at Marienbad]]''<ref>Thomas Beltzer, ''Last Year at Marienbad: An Intertextual Meditation'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20120121024525/http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2000/10/marienbad/ ].</ref> and an influence on the TV series ''[[Lost (2004 TV series)|Lost]]''.
'''Novels and novellas'''
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'''Letters'''
* ''En viaje (1967)'', 260 pp. (1996; "Travelling in 1967"; letters to Silvina Ocampo). Edited by Daniel Martino.
'''Diaries'''
*''Descanso de caminantes. Diarios íntimos'', 507 pp. (2001; "Rest for Travellers and Intimate Diaries"; a selection from his Journals). Edited by Daniel Martino.
'''Works written in collaboration with Jorge Luis Borges'''
* ''La leche cuajada de La Martona'' (1935; La Martona's curdled milk - Advertising brochure)
* ''Seis problemas para don Isidro Parodi'' (1942; translated into English as ''Six Problems for Don Isidro Parodi'', 1981, {{ISBN|0-525-48035-8}})
* ''Dos fantasías memorables'' (1946; "Two Memorable Fantasies")
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'''Works written in collaboration with Silvina Ocampo'''
* ''Los que aman, odian'' (''Those Who Love, Hate'', 1946)
'''Works written in collaboration with Daniel Martino'''
* ''Borges'' (2006).
'''Screenplays written in collaboration with Jorge Luis Borges'''
* ''
* ''El paraíso de los creyentes'' (1955, ''The Paradise of the Believers'')
* ''[[Invasión]]'' (1969, ''Invasion'')
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[[Category:Argentine diarists]]
[[Category:Writers from Buenos Aires]]
[[Category:20th-century Argentine male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century diarists]]
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