Benito Pérez Galdós(1843-1920)

Spanish novelist Benito Perez Galdos was born in Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, in 1843 to a wealthy family. He was sent to an English school in the Canary Islands, and later he studied law at the University of Madrid. Although he graduated with a law degree, the practice of law never interested him, and upon graduation he became involved in the literary circles of Madrid, and eventually got a job as the literary and drama critic of the magazine "La Nacion". He had always wanted to be a playwright, and although he wrote and published numerous plays--many of which met with great success and some of which were turned into films--he soon realized that his greatest talent was as a novelist.

He continued writing plays and novels while on the staffs of various literary publications, such as "Las Cortes" and "La Revista de Espana" magazines, and eventually he secured a position as editor of "El Debate". After a visit to France, however, he undertook what is generally considered his greatest work--"Episodios Nacionales", a project that became four series of books of ten volumes each and one series of eight books. Each book came out an average of every three months, in addition to his "regular" novels.

A lifelong bachelor, he was a somewhat reclusive man, though he did travel extensively in France, England and Spain, and the general public knew very little about his private life. Towards the end of his life his eyesight began failing him, and by 1912 he was completely blind. That didn't stop him, however; he continued to write, although dictating his work to a secretary, until he died in Madrid in 1920.