Alberto Manguel
Areas of Interest
Literature, InternationalHonorary Award
Honorary Doctor of Letters, 2009Biography
Alberto Manguel is a writer, translator, editor and critic, but more importantly, he is a reader and a lover of books.
Alberto was born in Buenos Aires in 1948 and spent his childhood in Israel and his adolescence in Argentina. While attending the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, he worked in a bookstore where he met blind Jorge Luis Borges, and became one of his readers for several years. After living in Europe and the South Pacific, working as an editor, in 1982, he moved to Canada writing for newspapers, radio and television.
He has edited a number of anthologies of short stories, and published several novels, including News from a Foreign Country Came and Stevenson Under the Palm Trees. He is best known for his books on book culture, such as A History of Reading, The City of Words, The Library at Night and A Reader on Reading. Together with Gianni Guadalupi, he wrote The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. His most recent book is Curiosity, on the questions that have driven our thinking forward. He has been named Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters of France, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in Britain.
He is much admired by students and staff at Anglia Ruskin University for sharing his love of books, and for teaching the world about the nature of literature, and the fundamental importance of libraries. He is honoured for his gargantuan talent as a writer, translator, editor and critic, and as a modern day campaigner for books and libraries.
Citation
"Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to read the citation for Alberto Manguel for the award of Honorary Doctor of Letters.
Alberto Manguel is a writer, translator, editor and critic, but more importantly, he is a reader and a lover of books.
Alberto was born in Buenos Aires in 1948 and spent his childhood in Israel and his adolescence in Argentina. While attending the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, he worked in a bookstore where he met blind Jorge Luis Borges, and became one of his readers for several years. After living in Europe and the South Pacific, working as an editor, in 1982, he moved to Canada and became a Canadian citizen. There he wrote for the Canadian newspapers, radio and television, as well as for many other publications around the world.
He has edited a number of anthologies of short stories, and published several novels, including News from a Foreign Country Came and Stevenson Under the Palm Trees. He is best known for his books on book culture, such as A History of Reading, The City of Words and The Library at Night. Together with Gianni Guadalupi, he wrote The Dictionary of Imaginary Places.
Alberto believes that, in most of our consumer societies, the intellectual act has lost most of its prestige, and that every reader's battle is therefore against the enforced education of stupidity. Moreover, he believes that he enemy of intelligence is not, as some would want us to believe, the electronic technology but the mercantile society that refuses to allow books and computers to share the same place. Above all, Alberto believes in the illuminating and healing quality of literate texts that allow us understanding of the world we live in.
Looking through Alberto's CV, you get a sense of what an intellectual giant he is and how incredibly hard he works, not only in the creative sense but in respect of achieving a highly admirable work-life balance. He has truly attended the 'University of Life' moving seamlessly from various roles within printed media to the more glamorous world of live media, covering national television and radio.
In recent years, he has been giving something special back to his many followers through his contribution to higher education. For five years, he directed the Maclean Hunter Arts Journalism Program at The Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada; and was later appointed Distinguished Visiting Wrier in the Markin-Flanagan Program at the University of Calgary.
He has worked on a number of the world's most prestigious literary prizes ensuring the future of literature as a public art. Most recently he has been on the judging panel of the International Vallombrosa von Rezzori, Italy; President of the Jury Prix Cevennes for the Best European Novel, France; and a judge on the David Cohen Prize for Literature, England.
Despite a full diary of events and appearances, Alberto is still finding the time to read and enjoy books. He now lives in a renovated presbytery in a small village in France, surrounded by more than 30,000 volumes.
He is much admired by students and staff at Anglia Ruskin University for sharing with us his love of books, and for teaching the world about the nature of literature, and the fundamental importance of libraries. He is living proof that people who pursue their dreams, particularly in the world of arts and literature, are often those that reap the richest of life's rewards.
Vice Chancellor it is my pleasure to present Alberto Manguel for the award of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa."