Julio Cortázar (26 Aug 1914 – 12 Feb 1984) was an Argentine novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Born in Belgium, he spent most of his childhood in Buenos Aires, and moved to France as an adult. Coztzar influenced generation of Spanish-speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe. Cortázar wrote numerous short stories, collected in such volumes as Bestiario (1951), Final del juego (1956), and Las armas secretas (1959). His two other novels, El examen and Divertimento, though written before 1960, only appeared posthumously. Less