PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Astrana Marín, Luis (1889-1959)

Dates of existence/Biographical dates:

Villaescusa de Haro (Cuenca, España) 1889 - Madrid (España) 1959

History:

Spanish translator, writer and journalist. He was born in Villaescusa de Haro, Cuenca, and passed away in Madrid. He was mason and anglophile by devotion to Cervantes, as he considered England the first one in recognizing the greatness of the writer. He translated the whole work of Shakespeare to Spanish. As a journalist he collaborated in El Liberal, La Correspondencia de España, El Heraldo de Madrid, ABC and El Imparcial. He participated at the edition of the full works of Quevedo and Calderón and wrote biographies of Séneca, Colón, Lope de Vega, Quevedo y Shakespeare.

In 1948 he published the work that made him successful, the biography of Cervantes, titled: "Vida ejemplar y heroica de Miguel de Cervantes". In 1953 he founded the Sociedad Cervantina for promotion and knowledge of Cervantes’ life and work. As admirer of Cervantes he took the apotheosis to the positivist method when he gathered together all the existent documentation about Cervantes until that moment, setting and contextualizing his life’s itinerary.