Arnold Tovell, Promoter of Egyptian Nobel Laureate, Retires From AUC Press

By Rev. L. Humphrey Walz

The American University in Cairo is winding up its international series of alumni and supporter celebrations of the 75th anniversary of its launching by the Presbyterian (USA) Board of Foreign Missions, which was affiliated with AUC for its first three decades. This year also marks the 35th milestone of its AUC Press, whose director, Arnold Tovell, retired in August.

Tovell is widely associated with much of the global renown of Naguib Mahfouz, the prolific Egyptian novelist and 1988 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. (Tovell, himself, credits that renown largely to his predecessors' energy and early recognition that the charm and substance of Naguib's popular Arabic tales could be engagingly carried over in translation and should be published in English.)

He notes particularly the part played by earlier Press helmsmen W. Mark Linz (who has returned to AUC as Tovell's successor) and Dr. John Rodenbeck. It was they who, in 1972, worked out with Mahfouz an agreement to publish English versions of nine of his books. Three were released that year. Five more came later, with one still to go.

"It was through the eight early translations of those novels into English," Mahfouz wrote in 1992, "that other publishers became aware of them and requested their translation into other foreign languages. I believe that these translations were among the foremost reasons for my being awarded the Nobel Prize."

The prize, in turn, redounded to the benefit of the AUC Press, whose published titles leapt quickly from an annual 15 to reach its current listing of 140. Initially, that leap from small academic press to the region's largest English-language book publisher was anything but easy. The 1988 Nobel announcement of the award to Mahfouz, Tovell recalled to AUC Today writer Len McGrane, made it necessary for Tovell and his staff to "work like madmen" weekdays and weekends for four months to answer mail and faxes as they set up a network of literary agents to deal with the flood of requests from publishers for republication and translation rights. One result: Mahfouz is now published in 23 languages and 217 editions.

This all was consistent with the AUC Press pattern of publishing works primarily on just one country, Egypt. "This is unusual," Tovell points out. "Most American university presses pride themselves on their breadth of output. However, we have aimed to create a portrait of just Egypt, past, present and future, and to engage as many distinguished scholars and translators as we can."

With constant help from and through the AUC faculty and friends, the Press actively continues to seek good Arabic fiction and non-fiction to translate and disseminate.

Rev. L. Humphrey Walz, D.D., retired Associate Executive of the Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast, is active in ecumenical and peacemaking activities.