Alejandro Sawa Martínez (15 March 1862 – 3 March 1909) was a Spanish bohemian novelist, poet, and journalist. Born in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

, Sawa was of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

origin. His father was an importer of wine and sundries. After a brief flirtation with the priesthood and a stint at the seminary of

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

, he underwent a sudden conversion to vehement

anticlericalism Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

and thereafter studied law in

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

. He arrived in Madrid in 1885, "absurd, brilliant, and starving" ( Valle-Inclán, ''Bohemian Lights''). There he led an impoverished, marginal existence. In 1889, he was lured to Paris by its artistic scene. For a time he worked on the staff of the Garnier publishing house, editing an encyclopedic dictionary, and had ample opportunity to strike up friendships with many of the luminaries of Parnassian and

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

literature, though he himself preferred the Romanticism of

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

. He translated the works of the

Goncourt brothers The Goncourt brothers (, , ) were Edmond de Goncourt (1822–1896) and Jules de Goncourt (1830–1870), both French naturalism writers who, as collaborative sibling authors, were inseparable in life. Background Edmond and Jules were born to m ...

and enjoyed what he would later regard as his "golden years". He married a Burgundian, Jeanne Poirier, and fathered a girl, Elena. On his return to Madrid in 1896 he plunged headfirst into journalism, serving as editor of ''El Motín'', ''El Globo'', and ''La Correspondencia de España'', and as a contributor to ''

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

'', ''Madrid Cómico'', ''España'', and ''Alma Española'', among others. His last years were marked by his descent into blindness and mental illness. Ironically, it was this period that yielded his only artistic success, a stage adaptation of

Alphonse Daudet Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet. Early life Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the ''bo ...

's ''Kings in Exile'', in the winter of 1899. His own writings, which were largely journalistic, continued to appear in the most prestigious Spanish newspapers even as his body and mind progressively deteriorated. He wrote, "I wouldn't have wanted to be born, but I find it unbearable to die." He did so on 3 March 1909, blind and insane, in his modest house on calle Conde Duque de Madrid. Shortly before his death, the great bohemian had declared: Sawa's personality was an inspiration to the novelists of the

Generation of '98 The Generation of '98 ( es, Generación del 98), also called Generation of 1898 ( es, Generación de 1898, links=no), was a group of novelists, poets, essayists, and philosophers active in Spain at the time of the Spanish–American War (1898), comm ...

, notably

Pío Baroja Pío Baroja y Nessi (28 December 1872 – 30 October 1956) was a Spanish writer, one of the key novelists of the Generation of '98. He was a member of an illustrious family. His brother Ricardo was a painter, writer and engraver, and his nephew ...

in '' The Tree of Knowledge'' and Valle-Inclán in ''

Bohemian Lights ''Bohemian Lights'', or ''Luces de Bohemia'' in the original Spanish, is a play written by Ramón del Valle-Inclán, published in 1924. The central character is Max Estrella, a struggling poet afflicted by blindness due to developing syphilis. ...

''. Max Estrella, the protagonist of the latter, was largely inspired by Sawa, who, though outwardly uncultivated, possessed a forceful personality and a style redolent of Hugo and

Verlaine Verlaine (; wa, Verlinne) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On January 1, 2006, Verlaine had a total population of 3,507. The total area is 24.21 km2 which gives a population density of 145 inhabitan ...

, men whom he would claim as his personal friends, along with

Rubén Darío Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (January 18, 1867 – February 6, 1916), known as Rubén Darío ( , ), was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as ''modernismo'' (modernism) that flourished at the end of ...

, and Manuel Machado. (The latter would compose an epicede in his honor.) After Sawa's death, Valle-Inclán wrote to Rubén Darío: Posthumously published in 1910 with a prologue by Rubén Darío, ''Iluminaciones en la sombra'' marked a

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

departure from the naturalist style in which he had written his earlier novels: ''La mujer de todo el mundo'' (1885), ''Crimen legal'' (1886), ''Declaración de un vencido'' (1887), ''Noche'' (1889), ''Criadero de curas'' (1888), and ''La sima de Igusquiza'' (1888).

References

* Amelina Correa Ramón, "Alejandro Sawa, luces de bohemia", Seville, Fundación José Manuel Lara, 2008.

External links

*
Digitized works of Alejandro Sawa in the Cervantes Virtual Library
*
News story
on the awarding of a literary prize to Amelina Correa for her biography of Alejandro Sawa. *
Digitized works by Alejandro Sawa
at Biblioteca Digital Hispánica,

Biblioteca Nacional de España The Biblioteca Nacional de España (''National Library of Spain'') is a major public library, the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos. History The library was founded by ...

(National Library of Spain) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sawa, Alejandro 1862 births 1909 deaths Writers from Seville Spanish people of Greek descent 19th-century Spanish poets 20th-century Spanish poets 19th-century Spanish journalists 20th-century Spanish journalists Spanish blind people Spanish male poets 19th-century male writers Blind poets