Fernando Báez (writer)
Fernando Báez is a Venezuelan writer, poet and essayist. He is known for his work on the destruction of Iraqi books and art caused by the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Báez has a degree in education and a doctorate in library science, and worked for several years at the University of the Andes in Mérida, Venezuela, where he studied Greek and Latin under José Manuel Briceño Guerrero.
Among his works are Historia Universal de la Destrucción de Libros, Historia de la Antigua Biblioteca de AlejandrÃa, La Destrucción Cultural de Iraq, which was translated into English by Alfred MacAdam and published in 2008 as A Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern-day Iraq.
He published his first novel, El Traductor de Cambridge, in 2005. Báez has also translated ancient Greek texts, specifically Los Fragmentos de Aristóteles and La Poética de Aristóteles.
He was declared a persona non-grata by the United States authorities, after the publication of his book on Iraq.
