Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“the soul of a Spanish Arab.” For him there
are no permanent loves, no overwhelming
passion, but merely the evocation of sensual
pleasures as he drifts through the starlit
night or floats on warm buoyant waters. His
poems are sensual but essentially light in
their emotion. His desire to strike effects or
even to shock (as in his early “Mal poema”)
seems never deeply felt.
Madariaga left Spain on the outbreak of
the S
PANISH
CIVIL
WAR
and did not return
there until the end of F
RANCISCO
F
RANCO
's
dictatorship in 1975. During much of this
nearly 40-year period Madariaga resided at
Oxford where he resumed his academic
and literary activities. This period of self-
exile was the most prolific of Madariaga's
career. In addition to novels and plays he
published several general histories of Spain
and of Spanish national character, studies
of notable individuals in Spanish and Span-
ish-American history (such as C
HRISTOPHER
C
OLUMBUS
, H
ERNÁN
C
ORTÉS
, and S
IMÓN
B
OLÍVAR
) and literature, and a number of
topics on Spanish America, including histo-
ries of the colonial era. Probably his most
important topics are
Guide for the Reading of
Don Quijote (1926),
The Rise of the Spanish
American Empire
(1942), and
The Fall of the
Spanish American Empire
(1945).
Madariaga was the recipient of numer-
ous honorary degrees and of honorary
membership in learned societies in Europe
and the Americas. His learning and his
readiness to discourse upon the largest
themes of world history, combined with his
sheer endurance, gave him the status of a
Renaissance intellectual living up to the
closing decades of the 20th century. Having
witnessed the end of the Franco regime, he
had the pleasure of seeing the restoration
of democracy in his native land. Shortly
before his death he published his valedic-
tory hailing the triumph of responsible
leadership in the person of J
UAN
C
ARLOS
I
and common sense among the people at
large who overwhelmingly approved the
1978 constitution. He tempered his opti-
mism by warning of the danger still posed
by communism, a danger that would soon
be dissipated both in Spain and the rest of
Madariaga, Salvador de
(1886-1978)
Spanish historian
Born in La Coruña, G
ALICIA
, of a military
family, Madariaga was drawn to history and
literature at an early age. His father, how-
ever, insisted upon a “practical” technical
training, and the youth was sent to pursue
his higher education in France, earning a
degree from the National School of Mines
in 1911. Returning to Spain, he obtained a
position as technical adviser to a railroad
company. After a few years, finding the job
uncongenial, he moved to London, where
he devoted himself to study and writing. He
also continued journalistic work that he
had previously combined with his other
activities. An interest in Spanish influence
on English literature brought about the
publication of
Shelley and Calderon
in 1920.
This and subsequent topics led to his
appointment as a professor of Spanish stud-
ies at Oxford (1928-31). After the estab-
lishment of the Second Republic, an event
that he hailed as a great triumph for democ-
racy, he served as his country's representa-
tive at the League of Nations, where he had
already established numerous contacts,
from 1931 to 1936. He also served the
republic as minister of justice and education
but was impelled by political attacks and ill
health to withdraw from public service.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search