Nora Benedict

I am a book historian and digital humanist focusing on Latin American print culture. More specifically, my research centers on twentieth-century Latin American literature, descriptive bibliography, book history, and questions of access and maintenance surrounding both digital and print cultures. 

My first monograph, Borges and the Literary Marketplace (Yale University Press, 2021), considers the marked presence of books, periodicals, and other print mediums in Jorge Luis Borges’s life by analyzing the physical features of his publications, which I read through the lens of analytical bibliography and material studies. By looking comprehensively at Borges's publications and editorial work from the 1930s to the 1950s, I argue that his various jobs in the publishing industry changed not only what people read, but how people read. 

My current project, Taking a Page from their Books, examines how international publishing firms in the Global North capitalized on the economic, political, and cultural opportunities available to them in the book industry in the Global South, specifically developing countries in Latin America. In particular, I provide a series of case study of different foreign publishers who became key figures in Latin American book production during this period. Through a careful analysis of these specific firms, my book reveals the various and nuanced factors (economic, political, literary, and ideological) that shaped the activities and commercial successes of publishers from the Global North in Latin America.