Unpublished and drafts to decipher the enigma LaForet

“For difficulties, at the last minute,” he writes in the first quarter that a few months later he would end up becoming the first novel to win the Nadal Prize, in 1944. He does not convince him and he clogged it. «Because of difficulties, at the last moment to acquire tickets, I had arrived in Barcelona at Mid-Noche, and nobody expected me. Now after my experience about the family I have … ». And cross out again. «Then it seemed like a pleasant and exciting adventure that deep freedom at night. The blood, after the long and tired trip, began to circulate on the numb legs and … ».

Today, that yellowing room, and some edges are torn, but its state of conservation is excellent. And like her the other four hundreds that contain the manuscript of ‘nothing’, the preparatory work from which LaForet composed its famous novel. “This is the star of the file,” he says Yolanda Ruizdirector of the Procurement Department of the National Library of Spain (BNE), the institution that has just acquired the author’s personal fund for 305,000 euros. «It is the first version of this novel that marked a milestone in Spanish contemporary literature. There are their annotations, their crossings … ».

Between this version and the one that sent to the call of Nadal there are all kinds of changes, both style and content, and it is known why those 218 typed folios have also reached the BNE. «She signed in the back. It has some annotations and there are passages that were not published in the final edition, ”says Yolanda Ruiz, which shows us with his partner Elena Lagunaof the Procurement Department and increase in assets, some documents that integrate the documentary fund that the technicians of the house are inventory and cataloging. There are more than twenty boxes, with a lot of unpublished material, which in a few months will be available to researchers. “All this will allow to shed light on many aspects of his life, his work, of the time and of the environment, both cultural and literary or professional.”

The Laphoret background consists of manuscripts, macho -written, printed, letters, drafts, photographs and other objects, such as a Spanish typewriter Olivetti, dated between 1923 and 1991. The process to acquire it has been relatively simple. The writer’s family offered it and an agreement has been reached without too many difficulties. The ‘nothing’ manuscript has cost 125,000 euros and the rest of the 180,000 euros file. «LaForet knew how to maintain all these materials despite its changes in home and trips. The family, when he received the trousseau, has also been increasing the background, acquiring more letters or buying the manuscript of ‘nothing’ from a bookseller, ”says Yolanda Ruiz, from the BNE. «This is the place where it had to be, because it is a front row figure. It has arrived because the Ministry of Culture has recognized the value and importance of this archive for Spanish heritage ».

Exalted with only 23 years as an author of international relevance, after publishing ‘nothing’, he wrote ‘the new woman’, related her sudden conversion to the Catholic religion, and three other books: the novel ‘The Island and the demons’, the Volume of Tales ‘La Dead’ and ‘The Call’, a collection of short novels. In that decade his five children were born, and from then on he only published one more novel, one travel book and another about Gran Canaria, the island on which he lived during his childhood and adolescence. The rest of their literary projects were reduced to notes and drafts. “There are things that she started and did not end,” says the BNE. This is essential to know his work ».

The lot entitled ‘Upon returning the corner’ is a good example. It is a folder that brings together materials related to the second novel of the trilogy ‘Three steps out of time’, which LaForet wanted to publish in the 60s and did not end. ‘Upon returning the corner’, the title of the second novel of the trilogy, was published in a posthumous way following the annotations of some galleries that he never returned to the publisher. In a macho -written included in this lot it is believed that there are indications of ‘Jaque Mate’, which was going to be the last title of the trilogy. This creative blackout and a progressive disappearance of the public scene wrapped Laforet in an aura of mystery that still pursues it today. The self -examination for overcoming a top work such as ‘nothing’, along with other personal avatars – like her relationship with tennis player Lilí Álvarez, the separation of her husband and her fragile health – contributed to feeding the enigma of LaForet.

What will undoubtedly contribute to decipher the author is her correspondence. The BNE has received epistolary that have already been published, such as those he had with Ramón J. Sender, Elena Fortún and Emilio Sanz de Soto, but there are also other letters aimed at figures such as Juan Ramón Jiménez, Miguel Delibes, Américo Castro, José Bergamín , Pérez de Ayala, Ana María Matute, Josefina Aldecoa … There are letters of friends, writers, American universities, students, professors and unknown … are, in total, about two thousand missives.

There are also several folders with drafts and literary fragments: loose papers, in general drafts that offer variants or unpublished interest for the study of LaForet’s work between 1970 and 1983. The folder entitled ‘Family Ghosts’ collects a series of Memories aimed at their children, with whom he planned to write a book. ‘Rebelde in float’ groups notes for a novel that did not finish, such as ‘Encounters in El Constévere’, a project with which the author wanted to pay tribute to people with whom he had found in the years he lived in Rome.

Travel newspapers

The Children of LaForet have also preserved the texts of one of the conferences she delivered, and drafts and copies of articles that she published in the 70s. The author had a fixed column titled ‘Diario’ in ABC at that time. He collected about two hundred cuts of articles that he published, in ABC and other headwaters such as ‘Destinad’, ‘Information’, ‘Pueblo’, ‘Above’ and ‘The country’. The BNE points out that the writer “not only portrayed the concerns and desires of women in a country mired in repression, but, with an intimate and brave voice, knew how to create a shared space of freedom and complicity.” He kept about a hundred interview and review press clippings since 1945, starting with the first press article of the Nadal Prize.

Other materials of interest are the so -called complete texts, consisting of several intimate newspapers. Among them, is the ‘Paris Notebook’, unpublished, written during their train trip to Brussels and Paris as sent from ‘Black and White’ to cover the royal wedding between Prince Alberto and Princess Paola Ruffo de Italy. “It has a clear, clean letter, a very intuitive writing, what you feel is capturing it,” Ruiz values. There are two other unpublished: the ‘Poland Notebook’ (1967), whose notes used for reports published in the magazine ‘Spanish News’ and the ‘US Notebook.’ (1965). It also highlights the folder ‘The Medical Woman in Spain’, five reports for whom he interviewed Medical Women in different parts of the country, as well as the ‘Board trip notebook’ (1965), which was published by the Cervantes Institute in 202222 .

LaForet’s legacy is completed with a photographic archive of more than 150 family photographs, trips and family events, and a series of documents from the late 90s that illustrate the neuronal ailment he suffered. «It is a material that documes how she tried to write and could not. This of course influenced his work and is very interesting to take it into account, ”says Yolanda Ruiz. He suffered from Affasia, a neurodegenerative disease that prevented him from communicating. She mentally understood what they told her, but the disease affected the speech and writing. Look how sad a writer … ».