Deleatur yhe: Created page

2026-08-30T05:59:35Z

Created page

New page

{{Short description|American novelist and poet}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Felipe Alfau
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| pen_name =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 24 August 1902
| birth_place = [[Barcelona]], [[Catalonia]], [[Restoration (Spain)|Spain]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1999|2|18|1902|8|24|df=y}}
| death_place = [[New York City]], U.S.
| occupation = [[Novelist]] and [[poet]]
| period =
| genre =
| subject =
| movement =
| notable_works =
| spouse =
| partner =
| children =
| relatives =
| influences =
| influenced =
| awards =
| signature =
| website =
}}

'''Felipe Alfau''' (24 August 1902 – 18 February 1999) was a [[Spain|Spanish]]-born [[United States|American]] [[novelist]] and [[poet]]. Most of his works were written in English.

== Biography ==
Born in [[Barcelona]], Alfau emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of fourteen. He lived in the United States for the remainder of his life. Alfau earned a living as a [[translation|translator]]. His sparse creation of fictional and poetic output remained obscure throughout most of his lifetime.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.barcelonareview.com/12/e_fa_ret1.htm| title= Felipe Alfau: A Retrospective|publisher=Barcelona Review|accessdate=2020-07-03}}</ref>

Alfau wrote two novels in English: ''Locos: A Comedy of Gestures'' and ''Chromos.'' ''Locos'' — a [[metafiction|metafictive]] collection of related short stories set in [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]] and [[Madrid]], involving several characters that defy the wishes of the author, write their own stories, and even assume each other's roles — was published by [[Farrar & Rinehart]] in 1936. The novel, for which Alfau was paid $250, received some critical acclaim, but little popular attention. The novel was republished in 1987 after [[Steven Moore (US author)|Steven Moore]], then an editor for the small publisher [[Dalkey Archive Press]], found the book at a barn sale in [[Massachusetts]], read it, and contacted Alfau after a friend had found his telephone number in the [[Manhattan]] phone book.<ref>Steven Moore, "Recalled to Life," ''Review of Contemporary Fiction'' (Spring 1993): 245–47.</ref> The novel's second edition was modestly successful, but Alfau refused payment, instructing the publisher to use the earnings from ''Locos'' to fund some other unpublished work. When Moore asked if he had written any other books, Alfau produced the manuscript for ''Chromos'', which had been resting in a drawer since 1948. A comic story of Spanish immigrants to the United States contending with their two cultures, ''Chromos'' went on to be nominated for the [[National Book Award]] in 1990.

Alfau also wrote a book of poetry in Spanish, ''Sentimental Songs'' (''La poesía cursi''), written between 1923 and 1987 and published in a bilingual edition in 1992; and a book of children's stories, ''Old Tales from Spain'', published in 1929.

''Locos'', ''Chromos'' and ''Old Tales from Spain'' were translated into Spanish and published in Spain during the 1990s.

Alfau's last years were spent in an octogenarian nursing home in New York, thanks to an indigent pension granted by the city council. Felipe Alfau died in New York in 1999.

[[Dawn Powell]] knew him in the late 1930s and described him thus in her diaries:

<blockquote>Felipe Alfau, brilliant, dazzling mind, witty, Jesuitical, a mental performance similar only to Cummings, but a scholar—erudite, fascinating, above all a romantic about his Spain, fiercely patriotic, a figure out of a medieval romance, a lover of Toledo, of old Spain, valuable surely to his country—talked so brilliantly of Totalitarianism that is based on human weakness, human error, human conduct, that it almost convinced me.<ref>''The Diaries of Dawn Powell, 1931–1965'', ed. Tim Page (Steerforth Press, 1995), p. 156.</ref></blockquote>

==Writings==
{{Library resources box|about=no|by=yes}}
*''Old Tales from Spain''. Illustrated by Rhea Wells. Garden City-New York: [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday, Doran & Company]], 1929.
*''[[Locos]]: A Comedy of Gestures''. New York: Farrar & Rinehart Inc., 1936.
*''Locos: A Comedy of Gestures''. Preface by F. A. Afterword by [[Mary McCarthy (American writer)|Mary McCarthy]]. Champaign and London: Dalkey Archive Press, 1988.
*''[[Chromos]]''. Introduction by Joseph Coates. Dalkey Archive Press, 1990.
*''Sentimental Songs. La poesía cursi''. Bilingual edition. Translated with an introduction by Ilan Stavans. Dalkey Archive Press, 1992.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline|Felipe Alfau Mendoza}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120310151954/http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/author/?fa=ShowAuthor&Person_ID=1664 About the author on the Dalkey Archive Press web page]
*[http://www.stevenmoore.info/photos.shtml Felipe Alfau with Steven Moore (10th photo down) and ms. of ''Chromos'']
*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929092919/http://www.centerforbookculture.org/interviews/interview_alfau.html |date=September 29, 2007 |title=Interview with Felipe Alfau }}
*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929092919/http://www.centerforbookculture.org/interviews/interview_alfau.html |date=September 29, 2007 }}
*[https://www.dalkeyarchive.com/a-conversation-with-felipe-alfau-by-ilan-stavans A Conversation with Felipe Alfau]
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfau, Felipe}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American male novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American poets]]
[[Category:Novelists from Catalonia]]
[[Category:Poets from Catalonia]]
[[Category:Spanish emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:American people of Catalan descent]]
[[Category:Writers from Barcelona]]
[[Category:20th-century American male poets]]

Felipe Alfau - Revision history

Deleatur yhe: Created page