Uncovers the role of Harriet de Onís (1899-1969), Alfred A. Knopf's principal translator of Spanish and Portuguese into English, in ushering in the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s and 1970s.

The Latin American Boom, which saw the rise of modernist authors like Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Gabriel García Márquez in the global and Anglophone literary market, mainly took place in the second half of the 20th century. However, as this book argues, this movement did not begin in a vacuum.

Harriet de Onís and the Translation of Latin American Literature examines the various literary and socio-political factors that shaped the translation and reception of Latin American literature in the US between 1930-1969. Namely, it traces the editorial project of Alfred A. Knopf, the most influential US publisher of Latin American literature during those years, and Harriet de Onís, Knopf's principal and most prolific translator. This book examines de Onís's critical role in this publishing history, one often overshadowed by the attention given to male scholars, while also demonstrating the editorial role of the translator in navigating the challenges of translation.

Drawing on archival research, each chapter traces the publication history of a different text. The three case studies feature both Spanish and Portuguese source texts from Mexico, Brazil, and Cuba and examine the specific challenges of translation, including translating political context, dialect, and experimental style. Taken together, the case studies nuance current models of global literary circulation and highlight the active role of the translator in shaping and mediating source texts for their target markets.