Cortázar wrote numerous short stories, collected in such volumes as Bestiario (1951), Final del juego (1956), and Las armas secretas (1959). Cortázar published four novels during his lifetime: Los premios (The Winners, 1960), Rayuela (Hopscotch, 1963), 62 Modelo para Armar (62: A Model kit, 1968), and Libro de Manuel (A Manual for Manuel, 1973). Two other novels, El examen and Divertimento, though written before 1960, only appeared posthumously.

The open-ended structure of Hopscotch, which invites the reader to choose between a linear and a non-linear mode of reading, has been praised by other Latin American writers, including José Lezama Lima, Giannina Braschi, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa.

Cortázar’s use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness owes much to James Joyce and other modernists, but his main influences were Surrealism, and the improvisatory aesthetic of jazz.

This last interest is reflected in the notable story El perseguidor (“The Pursuer”), which Cortázar based on the life of the bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Full bio available on Wikipedia