The Nobel Literature Committee has awarded the Prize to the best living Spanish-language writer, and one of the best writers in the history of literature:
Mario Vargas Llosa Wins Nobel Literature Prize
Vargas Llosa is not only a white male, he’s also a free-market libertarian who believes in democracy. His books have been bestsellers for decades.
He’s currently teaching at Princeton, and will be giving a public lecture at Princeton U next Monday – I expect it’ll be mobbed.
I’ll mention this news item briefly in today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern, and then talk about American politics with Moe Lane.
UPDATE
Nick Gillespie:
Vargas Llosa is one of those rare literary creatures who has not only helped to define the aesthetic stylistic innovation of his period but directly influence its events.
The author of over 30 books – and very nearly the president of Peru – Vargas Llosa is one of the preeminent public intellectuals of the post-war era and one of the great libertarian heroes of the age at least since his highly public criticism of the Castro regime starting in the early 1970s. An outspoken critic of authoritarian regimes on the right and the left, who else but Vargas Llosa would have called for the legalization of drugs while addressing the American Enterprise Institute’s annual dinner a few years back? He has been a consistent voice against repression wherever he finds it and an eloquent champion of freedom in all its manifestations. His insistence that all aspects of liberty – political, economic, and cultural – are inextricably linked is as powerful as it is rare among writers of his stature.
Reason has published two articles by Vargas Llosa: The Children of Columbus, and Global Village or Global Pillage?
Why we must create a universal culture of liberty
