Sergio Pitol was born in Puebla, Mexico on March 18, 1933. He studied law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He joined the Mexican diplomatic service in 1960 and served in Beijing and Warsaw. He resigned in 1968 to protest the Mexican government's massacre of student protesters. He worked for the Barcelona publishing house Tusquets Editores before rejoining the diplomatic corps. He served in Prague, Paris, and Moscow. He returned to Mexico in 1989 to teach at the Universidad Veracruzana and to write.
He was an essayist, author, and translator. His books included The Sound of the Flute, The Love Parade, The Art of Flight, The Journey, and The Magician of Vienna. He received the Cervantes Prize in 2005. He translated the works of several authors including Jane Austen, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, and Witold Gombrowicz. Pitol died on April 12, 2018 at the age of 85.
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