Is it a sign of a particularly parochial and particularly American form of cultural isolationism that the initial response — even among the very well read — to the announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature seemed to be, “Jean-Marie Gustave Le Who?”

John Sutherland, blogging in The Guardian, sees the selection of Le Clézio — who despite his lack of renown in the States has (a) taught here frequently and (b) fiercely fought in his work against the past and present of imperialism in the Americas — as a provocative thwack aimed straight at smug American sensibilities. Regardless of the intentions of the Swedish body, ignorance should set the curious off in a race to find a sample of the writings of the son of a Mauritian-born doctor and author of 30 novels and several collections of essays, and the route to experience Le Clézio runs straight through two university presses, both of them known for publishing fiction and literary fiction in translation.

The University of Chicago Press published in 1993 Le Clézio’s 1988 work Le rêve mexicain as The Mexican Dream; Or, the Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations. “It was a book we acquired through Morris Philipson, the director of the press at the time,” said Alan Thomas, the editorial director for the sciences and humanities at Chicago. “He had a great nose for translation projects and was very assiduous in looking for potential titles.” At the time, The Mexican Dream dovetailed nicely with Chicago’s list, which focused strongly on myth as part of its religious-studies list — not to mention the titles published in the literature-in-translation sublist.

The season that The Mexican Dream appeared saw Chicago publish Edmond Jabès’s Book of Margins, the fifth volume of Sartre’s Family Idiot, a biography of Marguerite Yourcenar, and Alice Kaplan’s French Lessons. Mexican Dream “was very much in the flavor of the literature in translation and literature list we were then — and now — developing,” says Thomas. The book’s remained in print all these years, even with rather withering figures (U. of C. Press publicity director Mark Heineke noted that a total of six copies were purchased last year) — a decision that has been vindicated by the Nobel bestowal.

The University of Nebraska Press has likewise kept its pair of Le Clézio titles— The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts and Onitsha — in print over the years, both through the paper Bison Books imprint. Nebraska is one of the largest publishers of translated literature among university presses in the States, and having a writer the stature of Le Clézio on its list was something of a no-brainer. With its lower price point, Bison, according to Nebraska marketing manager Rhonda Winchell, opened up possibilities for classroom use — “and a future life in paper.” The timing too was perfect, coming as the announcement does on the heels of the Frankfurt Book Fair and just in time to make next season’s Nebraska catalogue.

University presses draw not only on their established lists in literature in translation; they draw too on in-house translation resources — in the case of The Mexican Dream, Teresa Lavender Fagan, herself a U. of C. Press employee, took on the task of rendering Le Clézio’s book into English. “I translate about a title a year,” she told me on Thursday as she deflected my congratulations on the news away from her work and back to Le Clézio himself. So how would she classify the book’s sensibility — is it particularly, well, European?

“No,” Fagan said. “It’s Le Clézian.”

(Photo from here)