Call Number:

C1283

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 23 boxes
• 9.8 linear feet

Language:

Spanish; Castilian

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Sergio Pitol Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1951-2011 (inclusive)

Creator:

Moura, Beatriz de and Pitol, Sergio, 1933-2018.

Form:

Correspondence -- 20th century, Diaries -- 20th century., Interviews -- 20th century., Journals (accounts) -- 20th century., and Notebooks -- 20th century

Abstract:

Consists of the personal and literary papers of Mexican writer, translator, and diplomat Sergio Pitol.

Sergio Pitol Deméneghi was born in Puebla, Mexico, on March 18, 1933. He studied law at the Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. In 1960, he became a member of the Mexican Foreign Service and served over a number of years as cultural attaché in Paris, Warsaw, Budapest, Moscow. In the 1980s he served as Mexico's ambassador to Czechoslovakia. Pitol's trips also include periods of study and work in Rome, Beijing, and Barcelona. Since 1993 he has lived in Xalapa, capital of the Mexican state of Veracruz.

Pitol's publications as translator include literary works by such authors as Jerzy Andrzejewski, Jane Austen, Giorgio Bassani, Kazimierz Brandys, Anton Chekhov, Joseph Conrad, Witold Gombrowicz, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. He also served as a professor at the UNAM, at the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, and at the University of Bristol, England.

In 2005, Pitol received the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the Spanish-speaking world. Other major awards include the Premio Juan Rulfo (1999), Premio Herralde de Novela (1984), and the Premio Xavier Villaurrutia (1981). Pitol died on April 12, 2018.

Major published works:

The papers consist of Sergio Pitol's diaries, journals, notebooks, handwritten, typescript, and print out manuscripts of literary works, correspondence, personal documents, and papers of others about Pitol. There are manuscripts of unpublished works such as "Conversaciones con Sergio Pitol" (unpublished); and published manuscripts El desfile del amor, Domar a la divina garza, El viaje, and La vida conyugal. Correspondence includes letters from friends, writers, artists, literary critics, agents, and publishers such as Rosario Castellanos, José Donoso, Carlos Fuentes, Witold Gombrowicz, María Luisa Mendoza (la China), Carlos Monsivaís, Augusto Monterroso, José Emilio Pacheco, Octavio Paz, Elena Poniatowska, Manuel Puig, Juan Soriano, and Juan Villoro among others.

The papers are arranged in the following way: Series 1: Diaries and Journals, Series 2: Notebooks, Series 3: Writings, Series 4: Correspondence, Series 5: Personal Documents, and Series 6: About Pitol.