Alberto Manguel (1948) Argentina /Canada

writer, translator, essayist, and promoter of reading

Alberto Manguel is a respected Argentine-Canadian writer, translator, essayist, and promoter of reading. His probably best-known book, A History of Reading (1996), is an engrossing exploration of the role of reading in human culture, from ancient times to the present day. One of Manguel‘s mentors in the 1960s was the then already blind Jorge Louis Borges to whom the author would read aloud. Manguel has received numerous international awards for his work as an author and editor. Some of his renowned works include With Borges (2004), Reading Pictures (2000), The Library at Night (2006), and The Traveler, the Tower, and the Worm (2013).  In April 2024, Manguel inaugurated a new Centre for Research into the History of Reading in Lisbon, which has been built around his personal library of 40 000 books.