Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch (6 September 1806 – 2 August 1880) was a Spanish

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

. He was the Director of the National Library of Spain until he retired in 1875.

Biography

Hartzenbusch was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, Spain. His father was a German furniture carpenter and his mother a Spanish woman with the name María Josefa Martínez Calleja. Hartzenbusch's childhood was spent as an apprentice in his father's shop in order to become a cabinet-maker. He studied French 1815-1818 and then took a four-year course in the Jesuit College of San Isidro el Real in Madrid where he studied principally rhetoric, Latin, and philosophy. He followed his father's trade till 1830, when he learned

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''st ...

and joined the staff of the ''Gaceta''. He married Doña María Bernardina Morgue in 1830. She died in 1836. His earliest dramatic essays were translations from

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and worl ...

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

and Alexandre Dumas, père; he then turned to adapting old Spanish plays, and in 1837 produced his first original play, ''Los amantes de Teruel'', the subject of which had previously been used by Andrés Rey de Artieda,

Tirso de Molina Gabriel Téllez ( 24 March 1583 20 February 1648), better known as Tirso de Molina, was a Spanish Baroque dramatist, poet and Roman Catholic monk. He is primarily known for writing '' The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest'', the play from ...

and Juan Pérez de Montalbán. ''Los amantes de Teruel'' at once made the author's reputation, but ''Doña Mencía'' (1840) and ''Alfonso el Casto'' (1841) were disappointments; it was not till 1845 that he repeated his former success with ''La jura en Santa Gadea''. In 1900, Don Eugenio Hartzenbusch, Juan's son, published ''Bibliografía'' in Madrid which presents in succinct form as complete a list of his father's writings. It remains a testimonial to the lifelong indefatigable industry of this prolific writer. Summarized, the record there given comprises about 15 collections, including various editions of his works, 94 dramatic works, 236 poems 231 fables in verse, 19 addresses, 8 biographical articles, 15 stories, 14 articles depicting manners and customs, 9 literary criticism, 3 dramatic criticism, 33 prologues, 22 notes and articles referring to "Don Quixote" 22 miscellaneous articles, and 9 works of different authors collected and annotated. Such a record of literary activity tells its own story. It is the life of an author and a scholar, who through hard work and conscientious effort, secured for himself an honorable place among Spain's men of letters. Hartzenbusch was the chief librarian at the ''Biblioteca Nacional'', National Library, from 1862 to 1875, and was an indefatigable editor of many national classics. Inferior in inspiration to other contemporary Spanish dramatists, Hartzenbusch excelled his rivals in versatility and in conscientious workmanship. As a member of the '' Real Academia Española'', he edited works from

(12 vols., Madrid, 1839–42), Calderón de la Barca (4 vols., 1849–51),

Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (c. 1581 - 4 August 1639) was a New Spain-born Spanish writer of the Golden Age who cultivated different variants of dramaturgy. His works include the comedy '' La verdad sospechosa'' ( es), which is considered a masterpiec ...

(1852), and Lope de Vega (4 vols., 1853), among others. After retiring from the National Library in 1875, his strength of body and mind began to give way, and after losing his second wife, Salvadora Hiriart, he failed rapidly and died at his home in Madrid on 2 August 1880. The '' Real Academia Española'', the Spanish Academy, did him the honor of accompanying his body to its last resting place, the ''Cementerio de la Sacramental de San Ginés y San Luis.''

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio 1806 births 1880 deaths Members of the Royal Spanish Academy Spanish male dramatists and playwrights Spanish people of German descent 19th-century Spanish dramatists and playwrights 19th-century male writers

Biography

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