Trivia

Prestigious Spanish writer.

Won the Cervantes Prize in 1993.

After graduating from law school at the University of Valladolid, he found a job as a caricaturist with the regional daily newspaper "El Norte de Castilla". He later became a journalist at the newspaper and in 1958 its director. A victim of censorship by Franco's dictatorship after exposing the harsh conditions of life and work of rural peasants, he preferred to resign from the newspaper in 1963.

Unlike many of the leading intellectuals in Spain, Mr. Delibes never fled postwar Spain or the Franco dictatorship, which he abhorred.

Won Spain's most important prizes: the Cervantes, the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature (often described as the Spanish Nobel Prize); and the National Literature Award. In 1973 he was inducted into the Royal Spanish Academy.

His works have been translated into more than 30 languages, at least a dozen of them in English, including "The Heretic", "The Rats", "The Wars of Our Ancestors", "The Stuff of Heroes" and "Five Hours With Mario", considered by many to be his best novel.

Published more than 20 novels, several short-story collections and dozens of books about travel and his favorite hobbies, including hunting, fishing and soccer. He often described himself as "a hunter who writes.".

His appreciation of rural life and nature was reflected in many of his novels.

He started out as a newspaper cartoonist before becoming a reporter, editor, and novelist.