Alastair Reid (22 March 1926, in Whithorn – 21 September 2014, in Manhattan) was a Scottish poet and a scholar of South American literature. He was known for his lighthearted style of poems and for his translations of South American poets Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda. Although he was known for translations, his own poems had gained notice during his lifetime. He had lived in Spain, Switzerland, Greece, Morocco, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and in the United States. During the editorship of William Shawn he wrote for The New Yorker magazine, but his main income was from teaching.
Books in order of publication:
To Lighten My House – 1953
Fairwater – 1957
Outside In: Selected Prose – 1959
I Will Tell You of a Town – 1959
The Millionaires – 1959
Password: places, poems, preoccupations – 1963
To Be Alive! – 1966
Uncle Timothy’s Traviata – 1967
Supposing – 1973
Weathering – 1978
Ounce Dice Trice – 1979
Whereabouts: Notes on Being a Foreigner – 1987
An Alastair Reid Reader: Selected Poetry and Prose – 1994
Oases: Poems and Prose – 1997
Digging Up Scotland – 2002
When Now Is Not Now – 2006
Outside In: Selected Prose – 2008
Inside Out: Selected Poetry and Translations – 2008
To Lighten My House – 2019
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