Roughly Speaking

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by the great novelist Gabriel Garc\u237\ua M\u225\urquez. Long before he was awarded a Nobel for literature, Garc\u237\ua M\u225\urquez started his writing career as a reporter in his native Colombia. In 1955, he caused a sensation by breaking a story about the ordeals of a sailor and corruption and incompetence in the Colombian Navy. The story, published as a series in a Bogota newspaper, revealed Garc\u237\ua M\u225\urquez's powerful gifts for storytelling and marked a turning point in his life as a writer.