Alberto Méndez

Alberto Méndez (August 27, 1941 – December 30, 2004) was a Spanish novelist. He graduated from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and worked in publishing. His novel Los girasoles ciegos won several awards, including the Sentenil Prize (2004), the Critics' Prize and the National Prize for Literature in 2005. It was translated into English by Nick Caistor under the title Blind Sunflowers.[1] It was also made into a film called The Blind Sunflowers.

For the German footballer, see Alberto Méndez (footballer).
Alberto Méndez
Born
Alberto Méndez Borra

(1941-08-27)August 27, 1941
Madrid, Spain
DiedDecember 30, 2004(2004-12-30) (aged 63)
Madrid, Spain
NationalitySpanish
Alma materUniversidad Complutense de Madrid
OccupationWriter
Notable workLos girasoles ciegos
Awards

Biography

He was born and spent his childhood in Madrid, son of the translator and poet José Méndez Herrera. He studied baccalaureate in Rome (Italy) and graduated in Philosophy and Letters at the Complutense University of Madrid. He was affiliated in the Communist Party until 1982. He founded the publishing house Ciencia Nueva and collaborated in Montena and his distributor Les Punxes. In 2002 he was a finalist of the Max Aub International Story Award for one of the stories of The Blind Sunflowers.

Thanks to Los girasoles ciegos he won in 2004 the 1st Setenil Award for the best book of stories of the year.[2] He was awarded posthumous title with the Premio Nacional de Narrativa in 2005 for Los girasoles ciegos, a book composed of four stories set in the Spanish Civil War.[3][4] The work, published at the age of 63, also won the Premio de la Crítica.[5] The last story of the book -the one that gives it its name- was taken to the cinema in 2008 by José Luis Cuerda, who also wrote the script along with Rafael Azcona, and it has the same name.[6][7]

Although he did not dedicate himself to literature until his later years, Méndez worked closely with it. He was an editor at the publishers Les Punxes and Montena, among others, and co-founder in the sixties of Ciencia Nueva, which was closed by Manuel Fraga in 1969. He collaborated on TVE dramatic plays and was a screenwriter with Pilar Miró.

He died of cancer in Madrid on December 30, 2004, and then he was cremated.[8]

References
  1. "Blind Sunflowers". The Omnivore. 2013. Archived from the original on July 1, 2013. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  2. Herralde, Jorge (October 1, 2013). Por orden alfabético: Escritores, editores, amigos. Anagrama. p. 141. ISBN 9788433934314.
  3. EFE (October 6, 2005). "El fallecido Alberto Méndez obtiene el Premio Nacional de Narrativa". El Mundo (in Spanish). Mundinteractivos, S.A. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  4. "Alberto Méndez, Premio Nacional de Narrativa a título póstumo". 20 Minutos (in Spanish). 20 Minutos Editora, S.L. Reuters. October 6, 2005. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  5. Valls, Fernando (October 15, 2005). "Alberto Méndez o la dignidad de los vencidos". El País (in Spanish). Ediciones El País S.L. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  6. Ríos Carratalá, Juan Antonio (October 1, 2008). "El último guión de Rafael Azcona" (PDF). Memoria Académica (in Spanish). Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  7. García del Río, Pablo (October 2017). "Los girasoles ciegos, de Alberto Méndez" (PDF). Club de Literatura y Cine 'Leer en Imágenes' (in Spanish). Biblioteca Pública del Estado Jesús Delgado Valhondo de Mérida. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  8. Herralde, Jorge (January 2, 2005). "En la muerte de Alberto Méndez". El País (in Spanish). Ediciones El País S.L. Retrieved March 16, 2018.


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