by Gabriel García Marquez

Born in 1928 in Aracataca, Colombia, Gabriel García Márquez began publishing short stories in the 1940s, after moving to Bogotá to study law. An indifferent student, García Márquez began working as a journalist for various newspapers, establishing friendships with other young writers, and, eventually, publishing his first novel, La hojarasca (Leaf Storm) in 1955. By 1955 he was one of the most renowned newspapermen in Colombia. He moved the next year to Paris, France, as the European correspondent for El Espectador, the more liberal of the nation’s two major newspapers. When the newspaper shut down, García Márquez stayed in Paris to write fiction full-time, achieving moderate success with his early short stories and novels. In 1964 García Márquez had a sudden inspiration, and was able to imagine “word by word...