García Márquez Dies: Magical Realism Loses Its Master
Gabriel Garcia Marquez died on April 17, 2014, in Mexico City at the age of 87. He wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude in eighteen months while living on savings and credit in a Mexico City apartment in 1965-66. His wife Mercedes managed the household finances and eventually pawned their heater, hair dryer, and blender to mail the completed manuscript to the publisher in Buenos Aires. The novel sold 8,000 copies in its first week and has since sold over 50 million copies in 46 languages. Garcia Marquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 for work that "continents of dreams and reality" converge. Colombia declared three days of national mourning. President Santos called him "the greatest Colombian who ever lived."
April 17, 2014
12 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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