Francisco Umbral
Encyclopedia
Francisco Umbral (May 11, 1932 - August 28, 2007) was a Spanish
journalist, novelist, biographer and essayist.
, 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
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.
His preoccupation with slang is shown by:
Other biographies are more revealing:
Although autobiography is also present throughout his journalistic work, several of his works are explicitly autobiographical:
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
journalist, novelist, biographer and essayist.
Style
Although he was born in MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, a city that has inspired most of his work, his early years were spent in Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...
. 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
Miguel Delibes
Miguel Delibes Setién was a Spanish novelist, journalist and newspaper editor. From 1975 until his death, he was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy, where he occupied chair "e". He studied commerce and law and began his career as a columnist and later journalist at the El Norte de Castilla...
. 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
Interviu
Interviú is a Spanish magazine published by Grupo Zeta that is famous for publishing semi-nude and nude photographs of the rich and famous, sometimes using paparazzi photoshoots or posed pictorials .It also publishes articles on political and economic scandals, and features opinion pieces by...
, 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
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
and the restoration of constitutionalism and democracy
Spanish transition to democracy
The Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...
) and El Mundo
El Mundo (Spain)
El Mundo is the second largest printed and the largest digital daily newspaper in Spain and one of the newspapers of record in that country, with a daily circulation topping 300,000 readers for the printed edition and 24 million unique web visitors per month for the...
(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
Novalis
Novalis was the pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg , an author and philosopher of early German Romanticism.-Biography:...
, 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:
- Diario de un snob ("Diary of a snob", 1973)
- Spleen de Madrid ("Madrid Spleen", 1973, the title being a reference to Charles BaudelaireCharles BaudelaireCharles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
's Paris Spleen) - España cañí (1975)
- Iba yo a comprar el pan ("I went out to buy bread", 1976)
- Los políticos ("Politicians", 1976)
- Crónicas postfranquistas ("Post-Francoist Chronicles", 1976)
- Las Jais ("Birds", "Chicks" [slang, i.e. "Girls"] 1977)
- Spleen de Madrid–2 ("Madrid Spleen–2", 1982)
- España como invento ("Spain as an invention", 1984)
- La belleza convulsa ("Convulsive Beauty", 1985)
- Memorias de un hijo del siglo ("Memories of a child of the century", 1986)
- Mis placeres y mis días ("My pleasures and my days", 1994).
Among non-readers, he is remembered by an appearance in Mercedes Milá
Mercedes Milá
María Mercedes Milá Mencos is a Spanish television presenter and journalist, most notable for her work on Spain's Telecinco's Gran Hermano, the Spanish version of the reality television series Big Brother.- Biography :...
'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
Narratives
Highlights of his very extensive narrative production, in which autobiographical aspects stand out, include:- Tamouré (1965)
- Balada de gamberros ("Louts' Ballad", 1965)
- Travesía de Madrid ("Crossing Madrid", 1966)
- Las vírgenes ("The Virgins", 1969)
- Si hubiéramos sabido que el amor era eso ("If we had known that love was this", 1969)
- El Giocondo (1970) about the homosexual milieu of Madrid (the title is a play on the ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
"la Gioconda", the name of the painting known in English as the Mona LisaMona LisaMona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
) - Las europeas ("European Girls", 1970)
- Memorias de un niño de derechas ("Memoirs of a child of the rightRight-wing politicsIn politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
", 1972) - Los males sagrados ("Holy Evils", 1973)
- Mortal y rosa ("A Mortal Spring", 1975)
- Las ninfas ("The Nymphs", 1975, received the Premio NadalPremio NadalPremio Nadal is a Spanish literary prize awarded annually by the publishing house Ediciones Destino, part of Planeta. It has been awarded every year on January 6 since 1944...
) - Los amores diurnos ("Daytime Love", 1979)
- Los helechos arborescentes ("The Tree Ferns", 1980)
- La bestia rosa ("The Pink Beast", 1981)
- Los ángeles custodios ("Guardian Angels", 1981)
- Las ánimas del purgatorio, ("The Souls of Purgatory", 1982)
- Trilogía de Madrid ("Madrid Trilogy", 1984)
- Pío XII, escolta mora y un general sin un ojo ("Pius XIIPope Pius XIIThe Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
, the Moorish Escort and a General Missing an Eye", 1985) - Nada en el domingo ("Nothing on Sunday", 1988)
- El día en que violé a Alma Mahler ("The Day I Raped Alma MahlerAlma MahlerAlma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel was a Viennese-born socialite well known in her youth for her beauty and vivacity. She became the wife, successively, of composer Gustav Mahler, architect Walter Gropius, and novelist Franz Werfel, as well as the consort of several other prominent men...
", 1988) - El fulgor de África ("The Radiance of Africa", 1989)
- Y Tierno Galván ascendió a los cielos ("And Tierno Galván Ascended to the Heavens", 1990)
- Leyenda del César Visionario ("The Legend of the Visionary Caesar", 1992, winner of the Critics' Prize), Madrid, 1940 (1993)
- Las señoritas de Aviñón ("The Young Ladies of Avignon", 1995; the title is a reference to a painting by Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
generally known in the English-speaking world by its French-languageFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
name, Les Demoiselles d'AvignonLes Demoiselles d'AvignonHe followed his success by developing into his Rose period from 1904 to 1907, which introduced a strong element of sensuality and sexuality into his work...
) - Madrid 1950 (1995), Capital del dolor ("The Capital of Sorrow", 1996)
- La forja de un ladrón ("A Thief's Forge", 1997)
- Historias de amor y Viagra ("Stories of Love and Viagra", 1998)
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
Benito Pérez Galdós
Benito Pérez Galdós was a Spanish realist novelist. Considered second only to Cervantes in stature, he was the leading Spanish realist novelist....
for the nineteenth century.
Essays
He also wrote a set of very personal essays, under such titles as:- La escritura perpetua (De Rubén Darío a Cela) ("Perpetual Writing (From Rubén DaríoRubén DaríoFélix Rubén García Sarmiento , known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo that flourished at the end of the 19th century...
to CelaCamilo José CelaCamilo José Cela y Trulock, 1st Marquis of Iria Flavia was a Spanish novelist and short story writer. He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Literature "for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability".-Biography:Cela published his...
)", 1989)* - Las palabras de la tribu ("The Words of the Tribe", 1994)
- Diccionario de literatura ("Dictionary of Literature", 1995)
- Madrid, tribu urbana ("Madrid, Urban Tribe", 2000)
- Los alucinados ("Hallucinations", 2001)
- Cela: un cadáver exquisito ("Cela, an Exquisite Corpse", 2002)
- ¿Y cómo eran las ligas de Madame Bovary? ("And What Were Madame BovaryMadame BovaryMadame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert's first published novel and is considered his masterpiece. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life...
's Garters Like?", 2003).
His preoccupation with slang is shown by:
- Diccionario para pobres ("Dictionary for the Poor", 1977)
- Diccionario cheli ("Cheli Dictionary", 1983, CheliCheliCheli, according to the Royal Spanish Academy, is the jargon with elements of certain traditional working class districts of Madrid, Spain, such as Lavapiés and Atocha in the southern part of the old city , together with marginal and counter-cultural elements.Cheli, mainly a juvenile jargon,...
being to Madrid what CockneyCockneyThe term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
is to LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) - Las palabras de la tribu ("The Words of the Tribe", 1994).
Biographies and autobiographies
He also published biographical and literary essays presenting original views about classical authors of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as:- Larra, anatomía de un dandy ("LarraMariano José de LarraMariano José de Larra was a Spanish romantic writer best known for his numerous essays, as well as his infamous suicide...
, anatomy of a dandy", 1965) - Lorca, poeta maldito (1968, about Federico García LorcaFederico García LorcaFederico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
; the title is ambiguous, and could be interpreted as calling Lorca a "wicked", or "indecent" poet or one who is "cursed" either in the sense of being "spoken against" or "unlucky") - Ramón y las vanguardias ("Ramón and the vanguards", 1978)
- Valle-Inclán: los botines blancos de piqué ("Valle-InclánRamón del Valle-InclánRamón María del Valle-Inclán y de la Peña , Spanish dramatist, novelist and member of the Spanish Generation of 98, is considered perhaps the most noteworthy and certainly the most radical dramatist working to subvert the traditionalism of the Spanish...
: "White Piqué Boots", 1997)
Other biographies are more revealing:
- Valle-Inclán (1968)
- Lord Byron (1969)
- Miguel Delibes (1970)
- Lola Flores, sociología de la petenera ("Lola FloresLola FloresMaría Dolores "Lola" Flores Ruiz was a Spanish singer, dancer, and actress.- Professional career :Flores was born in Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz . Although thought to be only part gypsy, she strongly identified with the Spanish gypsy culture...
, sociology of the petenera", 1971).
Although autobiography is also present throughout his journalistic work, several of his works are explicitly autobiographical:
- La noche que llegué al café Gijón ("The night I arrived at the Café Gijón" 1977)
- Memorias eróticas (Los cuerpos gloriosos) ("Erotic memories: the glorious bodies", 1992)
- El hijo de Greta Garbo ("Son of Greta GarboGreta GarboGreta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
", 1977).
Honours and awards
- Gabriel MiróGabriel MiróGabriel Miró Ferrer .Most critics believe that Gabriel Miró's literary maturity begins with Las cerezas del cementerio , whose plot revolves around the tragic love of the super-sensitive young man Félix Valdivia for an older woman and presents—with an atmosphere of voluptuousness and lyrical...
National Prize for Stories (1964) - Carlos Arniches de la SGAE (1975)
- Premio NadalPremio NadalPremio Nadal is a Spanish literary prize awarded annually by the publishing house Ediciones Destino, part of Planeta. It has been awarded every year on January 6 since 1944...
(1975) - César González Ruano Prize for Newspaper Journalism (1980)
- Francisco Cerecedo Prize (1995)
- Prince of Asturias AwardPrince of Asturias AwardsThe Prince of Asturias Awards are a series of annual prizes awarded in Spain by the Prince of Asturias Foundation to individuals, entities or organizations from around the world who make notable achievements in the sciences, humanities, and public affairs....
for Letters (1996) - National Prize for Letters (1997)
- Premio Cervantes (2000)