Photo: Gorup de Besanez, CC BY-SA 4.0

Gabriel García Márquez

1927 – 2014 · died at about 87^[1][2]

Literature

Fun Facts About Gabriel García Márquez

• Gabriel García Márquez was denied US visas for years as a suspected subversive. Bill Clinton lifted the ban and named One Hundred Years of Solitude his favorite novel.^[1]
• In 2023 García Márquez overtook Miguel de Cervantes as the most translated Spanish-language writer, according to the World Translation Map.^[1][3][4]
• García Márquez's grandmother told fantastic stories deadpan, as if they were the irrefutable truth, a style that heavily influenced One Hundred Years of Solitude.^[1]
• Kafka's The Metamorphosis inspired the young García Márquez, in a translation then wrongly thought to be by Jorge Luis Borges.^{[1][5][6][7][8]}
• García Márquez called One Hundred Years of Solitude "a bit of a joke, full of signals to close friends", and mocked critics who tried to decode it.^[1]
• García Márquez's newspaper series revealed that a Colombian Navy shipwreck was caused by badly stowed contraband. In response to the controversy, his paper sent him to Europe as a foreign correspondent.^[1]
• Gabriel García Márquez was alive at the same time as Kim Jong Un — their lives overlapped for 30 years (1984–2014).^{[1][2][9][10]}
• Gabriel García Márquez shares a birthday with Michelangelo: both were born on March 6.^{[1][2][11][12]}

Gabriel José García Márquez was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo or Gabito throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, particularly in the Spanish language, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in leaving law school for a career in journalism. From early on he showed no inhibitions in his criticism of Colombian and foreign politics. In 1958, he married Mercedes Barcha Pardo; they had two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo.^[1]

Contemporaries

Stan Lee

87 yr overlap

B.B. King

87 yr overlap

Fidel Castro

87 yr overlap

Elizabeth II

87 yr overlap

Pope Benedict XVI

87 yr overlap

Jimmy Carter

87 yr overlap

George H. W. Bush

87 yr overlap

Nelson Mandela

86 yr overlap

Margaret Thatcher

86 yr overlap

James Watson

86 yr overlap

Maya Angelou

86 yr overlap

Vera Rubin

86 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Gabriel García Márquez

When was Gabriel García Márquez born?

Gabriel García Márquez was born on March 6, 1927, and died on April 17, 2014.

How old was Gabriel García Márquez at death?

Gabriel García Márquez was born on March 6, 1927, and died on April 17, 2014, at age 87.

What was Gabriel García Márquez known for?

Gabriel García Márquez was known for: One Hundred Years of Solitude. Gabriel José García Márquez was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo or Gabito throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, particularly in the Spanish language, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in leaving law school for a career in journalism. From early on he showed no inhibitions in his criticism of Colombian and foreign politics. In 1958, he married Mercedes Barcha Pardo; they had two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo.

Who was alive at the same time as Gabriel García Márquez?

Gabriel García Márquez's closest contemporary was Stan Lee. Their lives overlapped for 87 years.