Background

Jose Maria Gironella was born on December 31, 1917, in Darnius, Spain.

Education

From the age of ten to twelve Jose studied at Roman Catholic Seminary.

Career

Between 1933 and 1936 Jose Maria Gironella worked at various occupations: he served apprenticeships in a liquor factory and in a grocery business, and later he became a clerk in a bank.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out he enlisted and was at the front during most of that conflict. After the war ended in 1939 Gironella sold used books and worked in the wholesale clothing business.

In 1946 his first novel, "Where the Soil Was Shallow," was published and awarded the Nadal Prize. A second novel, "La Marea" (the tide), appeared two years later.

Gironella moved to Paris in 1948, and for a year he supplemented his income by giving chess lessons and driving a truck; he was thereafter able to support himself with his writing. He remained in Paris until 1952, with trips to England and Switzerland, and then returned to Spain.

Gironella’s major contribution to literature is a comprehensive and nonpartisan trilogy dealing with the Spanish Civil War and its ramifications. The initial segment, a novel entitled "The Cypresses Believe in God," was a major success in Spain when it appeared in 1953, and its English translation gained the author international renown. A long and powerful book, it deals with a middle-class provincial family and the effect of political upheavals upon them during that chaotic period just prior to the Spanish Civil War. It was widely praised as the greatest novel to emerge from Spain in many years.

"One Million Dead," the second segment of the trilogy, was published in 1961. The final volume of the trilogy, "Peace After War," which appeared in 1966, continues the story of the Alvear family.

Achievements

• Jose Maria Gironella was a prolific author for many years, with short stories, histories, travel books, and other nonfiction works to his credit. Gironella's prominence among Spanish authors was assured with the publication of his controversial trilogy of novels about the Spanish Civil War. It is for this trilogy that the author is most often remembered, especially outside Spain.

Works

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• book

  • Peace After War 1969
  • One Million Dead 1963
  • The Cypresses Believe in God: Volume One 1955
  • Yo, Mahoma 1995
  • Los cipreses creen en Dios 1953
  • Un millón de muertos 1961
  • Ha Estallado La Paz 1977
  • Carta A MI Padre Muerto 1979

Religion

Gironella was profoundly Catholic.

Views

Gironella's purpose in writing his trilogy was to analyze the problems of twentieth-century Spain. He did so by recreating prewar conditions, the military struggle, and the long recovery; it is to his credit that he kept partisanship and ideology to a minimum.

Connections

Gironella married Magda Castaner in 1946.

Wife:

Magda Castaner

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, vol. 212
  2011