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Gabriel García Márquez Facts

Gabriel García Márquez Facts
Gabriel Garcia Márquez, nicknamed Gabo, was a Columbian writer best known for his novels One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera as well as for winning a Nobel Prize. He was born March 6th, 1927 in Aracataca, Columbia, to Gabriel Eligio Garcia, a pharmacist, and Luisa Santiago Márquez Iguarán. Gabriel was raised by his maternal grandparents until 1936, who taught him about history and politics and ideology, as well as premonitions, ghosts, and omens. Gabriel's writing career began while he was attending law school at the National University of Columbia. He wrote for various papers on a variety of subjects and became part of a writing group called the Barranquilla Group. His journalism career branched into fiction and novels and Gabriel went on to become one of the 20th century's most significant authors.
Interesting Gabriel García Márquez Facts:
Gabriel's parent's love story was so intriguing that Gabriel went on to write a novel about their courtship titled Love in the Time of Cholera. Gabriel's father wooed his mother with serenades, love letters and poems and despite objection from his mother's family they were eventually allowed to marry.
Despite attending school for law Gabriel earned his living as a journalist before his literary career took off.
In 1955 Gabriel's first novella was published titled The Leaf Storm. This novel introduced many characters and settings for future stories, including the town Macondo that later became the village in his famous novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Gabriel García Márquez wrote several more novellas including No One Writes to the Colonel (1961), Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981), and Memories of My Melancholy Whores (2004).
Gabriel García Márquez wrote several short story collections including Eyes of a Blue Dog (1947), Big Mama's Funeral (1962), One of These Days (1962), The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother (1978), Collected Stories (1984), and Strange Pilgrims (1993).
Gabriel García Márquez's novels include In Evil Hour (1962), One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975), Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), The General in His Labyrinth (1989), and Of Love and Other Demons (1994).
One Hundred Years of Solitude became Gabriel's biggest commercial success with more than 30 million copies sold.
One Hundred Years of Solitude was the literary novel that led to Gabriel García Márquez winning the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature, and the 1972 Rómulo Gallegos Prize.
Gabriel married Mercedes Barcha in 1958, and they had two sons together, Rodrigo, and Gonzalo.
Gabriel was also a film critic and founded the Film Institute in Havana. He wrote several screenplays that were produced.
During his lifetime Gabriel lived all over the world, including in Cuba, Spain, Mexico, France, the United States, and Columbia. Fidel Castro even kept a mansion in Havana, Cuba, for Gabriel when he stayed there.
Gabriel was diagnosed with cancer in 1999. Treatment sent the cancer into remission and he began writing his memoirs.
On April 17th, 2014 Gabriel García Márquez died of pneumonia. He was 87.


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