Gonzalo Torrente Ballester

Gonzalo Torrente Ballester (June 13, 1910 - January 27, 1999) was a Galician writer in Spanish language. He was born in Serantes, Ferrol, Galicia, and received his first education there, subsequently attending the universities of Santiago de Compostela and Oviedo.

Although primarily a novelist, he also published journalism, essays, and plays. His career as a writer began in Oviedo, but developed largely in Madrid.

After moving around frequently in the later 1920s and early 1930s, including a period in Paris, he returned to Spain and linked himself to Franco's Falange party in order to save his own life and that of his family. His first novel, "Javier Mariño", appeared in 1943, and he continued to publish novels almost until his death, receiving major prizes for some of them.

Despite his affiliation to the Falangists, Torrente Ballester always promoted relatively leftist ideas, and from 1939, when he returned to Santiago to take up a university post, he increasingly distanced himself from the party. He joined in protests in favour of striking Asturian miners in 1962, and was expelled from his teaching post at the university as a result. In the mid-1960s he had a number of problems with government censors.

He left Spain for a post at the State University of New York at Albany in 1966, and remained there until 1970. After his return to Spain, he was increasingly celebrated: In 1975 he was elected member of the Real Academia Española, and was awarded the premier Spanish literary prize, the Cervantes Prize, in 1985.

Immediately after his death a foundation was set up to protect, study and disseminate his work. The name of this foundation is Fundación Gonzalo Torrente Ballester.

List of novels

* Javier Mariño (1943)
* El golpe de estado de Guadalupe Limón (1946)
* Ifigenia (1950)
* El Señor llega (1957) - Novel prize of the Fundación Juan March
* Donde da la vuelta el aire (1960)
* La Pascua triste (1962)
* Don Juan (1963)
* Off-Side (1968)
* La Saga/Fuga de J.B. (1972) - Critics' Prize and City of Barcelona Prize
* Fragmentos de Apocalipsis (1977)
* La isla de los jacintos cortados (1980) - National Literature Prize
* Dafne y ensueños (1982)
* Quizá nos lleve el viento al infinito (1984)
* La princesa durmiente va a la escuela (1985)
* La rosa de los vientos (1985)
* Yo no soy yo, evidentemente (1987)
* Filomeno, a mi pesar (1988) - Planet Prize
* Crónica del rey pasmado (1989)
* Las islas extraordinarias (1991)
* La muerte del decano (1992)
* La novela de Pepe Ansúrez (1994)
* La boda de Chon Recalde (1995)
* Los años indecisos (1997)
* Doménica (1999)

creenplays

* "Surcos" (1951)

See also

University of Santiago de Compostela

External links

* [http://www.gonzalotorrenteballester.es Official site] giving biographical and bibliographical material about Torrente Ballester and a good collection of images.
* [http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalo_Torrente_Ballester Torrente Ballester at Wikipedia in Spanish language] giving biographical and bibliographical information.