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“I had no idea at all about where I wanted to go, or how, or anything like that—only that I would. And I did.”--Alastair Reid

Alastair Reid was born in Galloway, Scotland in 1926. Reid was raised in a rural Scottish town that operated within a largely Calvinist society. His Calvinist upbringing fettered his mind with memories of being told “to expect the worst” and that “change […] doesn’t work.” Reid decided, at the age of seven, that it would be necessary for his survival for him to leave to Scotland.

Upon graduating from high school, Reid enlisted in the Navy for approximately one year. After his brief term in the Navy and after the end of WWII, Reid had already visited the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean; he also claimed that he had seen “enough human variety” to make his hometown appear very small and querulous. After writing for The New York Times, Reid stumbled upon Spain “not by design” but by “the other side of sheer curiosity.” He found Spain to be liberating and the Spaniards to be a vivacious people. When returning to Scotland for brief intervals of time, Reid noticed how “staunch citizens of St. Andrews, members of [his] family, even, would fix [him] with a wary eye and say ‘You’ve been Away.’ [‘Away’ would be enunciated] as a dismissal, a deliberate uninterest and [he] conditioned [himself] to listen to the running account of local woes that followed.” Although not “joyous occasions,” Reid continued to have minor revelations in the backdrop of the Scottish landscape.

Reid’s son Jasper was born on August 9 th, 1959. He would be raised solely by his father. The father and son moved to Madrid for a brief period and then moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. The family then moved to London; Reid and Jasper purchased a houseboat and “became emeshed in the life of the river.” Life on the houseboat consisted of small parties and frequent visitors. Reid later met Pablo Neruda in London while translating his work to English. Neruda became a mainstay visitor on the houseboat.

Reid eventually accepted a year-long teaching opportunity at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. It was there that he “formed friendships that have lasted both vividly and ubiquitously.” That year at Antioch “was a year of fire, of passionate rethinking.” After his teaching stint, Reid and Jasper returned to Scotland and took up residency in Pilmour Cottage. Jorge Louis Borges, among many other individuals, spent a week in Pilmour Cottage and became a well-received guest of the house. After spending a summer in Spain, Reid and Jasper boarded a boat that was departing from Barcelona and headed to Venezuela. Max Aub, an exiled Spanish writer, became a friend during Reid’s stay in Mexico City. His son and he spent the following winter in “the hopeful Chile of Allende” and in Argentina.

Surprisingly enough, Reid and Jasper left for London at the end of the year and would live there for four more years. After the death of his father in 1975, Reid returned to the United States. Jasper finished school in 1977 and was accepted to Yale. Reid continued to travel to Brazil and London. As of 2003, Reid has published thirty books and continues to work as a writer, a poet, and a translator.