Eduardo Zamacois

Born in Pinar del Río, Cuba, in 1873, Eduardo Zamacois y Quintana grew up between Spain and France and went on to become a novelist, journalist, and playwright. He became closely associated with Madrid’s bohemian literary world and was one of the notable figures behind the boom of the short novel in Spain, building a reputation for energetic, accessible storytelling.

Zamacois wrote widely and lived widely too, spending important stretches of his life in Paris as well as Spain. During the Spanish Civil War he worked as a war correspondent, and after the conflict he went into exile in the Americas, a displacement that marked the later part of his long career.

He died in Buenos Aires in 1971 at the age of 98. Remembered as a prolific and mobile literary figure, he stands out for linking journalism and fiction and for reflecting, through both his life and writing, the turbulent cultural world of the late 19th and 20th centuries.