Identity area
Reference code
CA OTUTF MS COLL 00477
Title
Date(s)
- [197-]-2006 (Creation)
Level of description
Accession
Extent and medium
47 boxes and 1 painting (8.5 metres)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Alberto Manguel was born in Buenos Aires in 1948, and is now a Canadian citizen. After spending his childhood in Israel, where his father was the Argentine ambassador, he attended school in Argentina. In 1968 he left for Europe and, with the exception of one year back in Buenos Aires where he worked as a journalist for the newspaper La Nacion, he lived in Spain, France, England and Italy earning an itinerant living as a reader for various publishing companies. In the mid-seventies he was offered (and accepted) a job as assistant editor at Les Editions du Pacifique, a publishing company in Tahiti. In 1982, after the publication of The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (written with Gianni Guadalupi) he moved to Canada. He has edited a dozen anthologies of short stories on themes ranging from fantastic literature to erotic literature, and he has written several books of fiction and non-fiction. Among them, A History of Reading, translated into over thirty languages, Into the Looking-Glass Wood, Reading Pictures, and the novels News From A Foreign Country Came and Stevenson Under the Palm Trees. He contributes regularly to newspapers and magazines around the world.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Gift of Alberto Manguel, 2006.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The 2006 accession complements the existing Alberto Manguel collections held at the Fisher Library. It consists primarily of original draft manuscripts, translations, galleys and page proofs for Manguel's recently published work, notably The Library at Night (published 2006), as well as for his commissioned articles, reviews and other projects for a variety of publications. (Many of these published articles are in the collection.) It also includes manuscript drafts for two as-yet unpublished novels in English, At The Mad Hatter's Table and The Book of Praise. Among the other published works represented in this collection are: The Reading Diary (US version, published in 2004); two Manguel-edited anthologies: THe Penguin Book of Christmas Stories (2005) and Memoria Para el Olvido: Los ensayos de Robert Louis Stevenson (2005); A Room Full of Toys (2006); and, The Secret Supper, authored in Spanish by Javier Sierra and translated by Manguel. It also includes material for the book series Manguel edits for the French published Actes Sud.
There is a small number of personal diaries and agendas in this collection, as well as correspondence, primarily related to his work. There are also large files of correspondence and other administrative records from his two primary agencies of the past 15 years, Lucina Vardey and Westwood Creative Artists, both based in Toronto.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/stack-retrieval-request
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
- Spanish
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Uploaded finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description identifier
CA OTUTF MS COLL00477
Institution identifier
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto