Alastair Reid was born in Whithorn, Scotland, in 1926. He was a poet, translator, and traveling correspondent for the New Yorker for 40 years. His settled childhood in Galloway and the Scottish Borders was disrupted by the Second World War, which he said broke everything. He spent time on a small ship in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf while serving in the Royal Navy, during which he was exposed to multiple languages, and thereafter he lived an itinerant life. His wanderings led him to live mainly between New York, Spain, Latin America, and London, and frequently in other peoples’ houses. He returned to Scotland from time to time throughout his life, which ended in 2014.
His passport described him as a …
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Citation: Stephens, Cynthia. "Alastair Reid". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 January 2020 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14506, accessed 19 April 2024.]
