Francisco Umbral

Francisco Umbral
Born Francisco Pérez Martínez
(1932-05-11)11 May 1932
Madrid
Died 11 August 2007(2007-08-11) (aged 75)
Occupation journalist
Language Spanish
Nationality Spanish
Genre novelist

Francisco Umbral (born Francisco Pérez Martínez) (11 May 1932[1] - 28 August 2007) was a Spanish journalist, novelist, biographer and essayist.

Style

Although he was born in Madrid, a city that has inspired most of his work, his early years were spent in Valladolid. His mother travelled to Madrid for his birth, because he was an illegitimate child. His mother's indifference and distance from him marked him with an enduring sadness, as did the infant death of his only son, from which event was born his saddest and most personal book, Mortal y rosa, (A Mortal Spring). This created in the author a characteristic haughty manner, devoid of hopefulness, absolutely submerged in literature, which has provoked many polemics and enmities.

In Valladolid he began his journalistic career at El Norte de Castilla, under the tutorship of Miguel Delibes. In 1961 he went to Madrid as a correspondent and quickly became a prestigious reporter and columnist in magazines such as La Estafeta Literaria, Mundo Hispánico and Interviú, and in influential newspapers such as Ya and ABC, although he is best known for his writings for the daily newspapers El País (founded in 1976 just after the death of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and the restoration of constitutionalism and democracy) and El Mundo (founded 1990). At El País he was one of the reporters who best was able to describe the countercultural movement known as La Movida, but his literary quality undoubtedly came from his creative fecundity, his linguistic sensibility and the extreme originality of his style, very careful and complex, creative in its syntax, very metaphorically developed and flexible, abundant in neologisms and intertextual allusions; in sum, of a demanding lyric and aesthetic quality. He practices a species of anti-bourgeois criticism of customs and manners, without renouncing a romantic ego, and, in the words of Novalis, has the intent of giving the dignity of the unknown to the everyday, impregnating it with a desolate tenderness. As a political reporter, Umbral is a highly trenchant writer. Having become a successful journalist and writer, he worked with Spain's most varied and influential magazines and newspapers. Among the many published volumes of his articles, the following stand out:

Among non-readers, he is remembered by an appearance in Mercedes Milá's TV program Queremos saber in Antena 3 TV (1993). After some chatter, Umbral breaks conversation claiming that he has come to talk about his latest book, La década roja, not to entertain her[2]

Work

Narratives

Highlights of his very extensive narrative production, in which autobiographical aspects stand out, include:

In 1985, Umbral began a series of novels about the most important events in the history of twentieth-century Spain, after the fashion of the Episodios nacionales of Benito Pérez Galdós for the nineteenth century.

Essays

He also wrote a set of very personal essays, under such titles as:

His preoccupation with slang is shown by:

Biographies and autobiographies

He also published biographical and literary essays presenting original views about classical authors of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as:

Other biographies are more revealing:

Although autobiography is also present throughout his journalistic work, several of his works are explicitly autobiographical:

Honours and awards

References

  1. ↑ Caballé, Anna: Francisco Umbral. El frío de una vida, Espasa-Calpe, 2004, p.69. ISBN 978-84-670-1308-5.
  2. ↑ «¡Yo he venido aquí a hablar de mi libro!», Darío Prieto, El Mundo, 29 August 2007.
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