Biography of Ana María Matute | Spanish writer.

1925-2014 (Barcelona) Spanish writer. Prominent novelist of the so-called generation of the "amazed children", his work describes the environment of the postwar civilian. Ana María Matute was unveiled in the Spanish literary scene with The Abel (1948), a novel inspired by the biblical story of the children of Adam and Eve, in which reflected the Spanish atmosphere immediately after the civil war from the point of view of the perception of the child. This approach has remained constant throughout his first novelistic production and was common to other representatives of his generation.

Ana María Matute

Ana María Matute's novels are not exempt from social commitment, while it is true that not are they assigned explicitly to any political ideology. Based on the realistic view prevailing in the literature of his time, he managed to develop a personal style that delved into the imagination and have set up a lyrical and sensory, emotional and delicate world. His work is thus a rare combination of social criticism and poetic message, set in the universe of the childhood and Adolescence of the postwar Spain.

Ana María Matute was awarded awarded the Café Gijón by Northwest party (1953) and the planet Award for small theatre (1954), novel which was followed in this land (1955). He also received the Critics Award and the national literature for the dead children (1958).

Later wrote the trilogy merchants, comprising first memory (1959), soldiers cry at night (1964) and the trap (1969), which had a great success. Watch Tower (1971) is the story of a teenager who should start in the arts of cavalry; Although it follows the line of the previous ones, is given therein a historic change of atmosphere to the medieval period, a trait which continued in the works of his maturity, published after a lengthy period of literary silence.

Thus, his novel Forgotten King Gudu (1997) raises an extensive and complex plot of events focusing on the dispute maintained over the course of the tenth century by the King of Olar, Volodioso, and their enemies, the baron Ansélico and the daughter of this ruse. Medieval times has also as setting his novel Avanmarot (1999).

Matute cultivated besides the short narrative, bringing together their stories in volumes as the time (1956), Stories of the Artaila (1961), some boys (1968) and the Virgin of Antioch and other stories (1990). His two autobiographical books to the middle of the road (1961) and the river (1963), in which evokes their childhood experiences in the rural and bucolic atmosphere of Mansilla de la Sierra are remarkable.

True to his fascination with the world of childhood, also wrote stories for children, collected for the most part in the dumb kids (1956), Crazy Horse (1982), three and a dream (1961), a barefoot (1983) and Paulina (1984). It formed part of the Royal Spanish Academy since 1996. In 2007 it was awarded the national prize of the Spanish literature; It was the third woman receiving the award (Rosa Chacel won it in 1987 and Carmen Martín Gaite in 1995). His career with the award of the Premio Cervantes was recognized in 2010.

Extracted from the website: Biografías y Vidas