Juan Benet

Juan Benet (October 7, 1927 – January 5, 1993) was a Spanish writer.

Benet was born in Madrid. At the start of the Spanish Civil War, his father was killed, and he left for San Sebastian with his family to find refuge. They stayed there until 1939, when they returned to the capital. In 1944, he completed his high school education and in 1948 he entered into the School of Civil Engineering in Madrid. He frequented the discussion group at Café Gijón, in Madrid, where he met the man who would become his best friend, Luis Martín Santos, among other authors of that time.

In 1953, still a student, he started an engineering internship in Finland and published his first play, Max, in which one can see the beginnings of a singular literary style that distances itself from the popular themes of Spanish literature of that era. Theatrical director Carlos Nuevo said that Max is "a dream, a nightmare. It is the projection of all the fears, contradictions, conditionings, meannesses, nobilities of all those of that in one way we aspire to realize in a work of art."

In 1954, Benet finished his engineering degree, and in the following year he married. After completing several works in Switzerland, he moved to Ponferrada in Léon, and after to Oviedo, for work-related reasons.

In 1961, Benet published You Will Never Amount to Anything (Nunca llegarás a nada), his first novel.

In 1966, he returned to Madrid, and in 1968 he published Return to Región (Volverás a Región), at the same time that he built the reservoir of Porma. There were already those qualifying the work of Benet as "incorrect literature," and only a few contemporary authors, such as Pere Gimferrer, who realized that one of the great authors of the Spanish narrative had been born. In 1967, Benet obtained the Biblioteca Breve Prize for his work, A meditation (Una meditación).

...
Wikipedia