The writer Camilo José Cela (Iria Flavia, 1916), author of well
known works such as La Colmena, has died in a hospital in Madrid, due to
cardiac insufficiency caused by his respiratory illness.
He won the Nobel and Cervantes prizes, and lived for over 30 years on
Mallorca. Cela and his first wife, María del Rosario Conde, moved
from Madrid to Palma in 1954. In Palma, Cela met many artists and
intellectuals, such as the artist Joan Miró and the writers Ernest
Hemingway and Robert Graves. In 1956 he started to publish "Papeles de
Son Armadans", a monthly magazine run by the writer that was published
until 1979, and in May 1959, he organised from the magazine the "Poetic
Conversations at Formentor". In 1964 he moved to La Bonanova, a district
of Palma where Joan Miró and Robert Graves also lived. At the time
of the democratic transition, in 1977, Cela was named a Senator for the
Parliament by royal decree; this ended in 1979. On March 10, 1991 he married
Marina Castaó and the same year King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía
opened the Camilo José Cela Foundation in his Galician town Iria
Flavia.
Camilo José Cela Conde, the only son of the late writer, a professor
at the Balearic University, is a writer, columnist for the Diario de Mallorca
and a veteran sailor.
More information about the author:
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Página web de la Fundación
Camilo José Cela
Photo © Fundación Camilo José Cela