Jorge Edwards Valdés (born June 29, 1931) is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an novelist, journalist and diplomat. He was the Chilean ambassador to France during the first Piñera presidency.

Life and career

Edwards attended

Law School A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

at the

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

. During the

presidency of Salvador Allende Salvador Allende was the president of Chile from 1970 until his 1973 suicide, and head of the Popular Unity government; he was a Socialist and Marxist elected to the national presidency of a liberal democracy in Latin America.Don MabryAllende ...

, Edwards reopened the

an embassy in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, but only three months later, the government of

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

declared him ''

persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution. Diplomacy Under Article 9 of the ...

''. From this episode he wrote, perhaps, his most famous work, ''Persona non grata'' (1971). In June 1994, Edwards accepted the post of Ambassador for Chile before the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

), which has its headquarters in Paris, a city where Edwards resided for many year

Edwards currently lives in

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

. In 2008 his novel ''La Casa de Dostoievsky'' won the prestigious Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América de Narrativa, one of the richest literary prizes in the world, worth $200,000. In 2010 Edwards was granted Spanish citizenship by

King Juan Carlos I of Spain Juan Carlos I (;, * ca, Joan Carles I, * gl, Xoán Carlos I, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 Novem ...

Awards and honors

*1979 He entered the

Academia Chilena de la Lengua The Academia Chilena de la Lengua (Spanish for ''Chilean Language Academy'') is an association of academics and experts on the use of the Spanish language in Chile. It is a member of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language and is a part ...

*1994

Chilean National Prize for Literature {{Use dmy dates, date=October 2020 In Chile, the National Prize for Literature ''(Premio Nacional de Literatura)'' was created by Law No. 7,368 during the presidency of Juan Antonio Ríos on 8 November 1942. It consists of a lump-sum monetary prize ...

*1999

Cervantes Prize The Miguel de Cervantes Prize ( es, Premio de Literatura en Lengua Castellana Miguel de Cervantes) is awarded annually to honour the lifetime achievement of an outstanding writer in the Spanish language. History The prize was established in 1975 ...

*2000 Gabriela Mistral Order of Educational and Cultural Merit *2008 Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América de Narrativa *2016 Grand Cross of the

Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise The Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise ( es, Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio) is a Spanish civil order established in 1939, recognising activities in the fields of education, science, culture, higher education and research. The order was create ...

Boletín Oficial del Estado
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Bibliography

The youngest of the Edwards Valdés brothers (Carmen, Laura, Angélica, Luis Germán and himself). Of all them, only Luis Germán is deceased. Jorge Edwards descends directly from

José Miguel Carrera José Miguel Carrera Verdugo (; October 15, 1785 – September 4, 1821) was a Chilean general, formerly Spanish military, member of the prominent Carrera family, and considered one of the founders of independent Chile. Carrera was the most impo ...

, on his mother's side (Valdés).

Short stories

*''El patio'' (1962) *''Gente de la ciudad'' (1961) *''Las máscaras'' (1967) *''Temas y variaciones'' (1969) *''Fantasmas de carne y hueso'' (1993)

Novels

*''El peso de la noche'' (1965) *''Persona non grata'' (1973) *''Los convidados de piedra'' (1978) *''El museo de cera'' (1981) *''La mujer imaginaria'' (1985) *''El anfitrión'' (1987) *''El origen del mundo'' (1996) *''El sueño de la historia'' (2000) *'' El inútil de la familia'' (2004), about

Joaquín Edwards Bello Joaquín Edwards Bello (; May 10, 1887 – February 19, 1968) was a Chilean writer and journalist of British descent. Life Edwards Bello was born in Valparaíso, one of the most important ports in Chile. His family, the Edwards, is still one of ...

. *'' La Casa de Dostoievsky'' (2008)

Journalism

Jorge Edwards writes for several

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

s in

and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

(''

La Nación ''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal '' Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argentina. Its motto is: "''La Nac ...

'',

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

) and Europe (''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'',

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

; and ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'',

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

). A large portion of his journalistic work has been collected in two books: *''El whisky de los poetas'' (1997) *''Diálogos en un tejado'' (2003)

Other works

He has also written essays and biographies: *''Desde la cola del dragón'' (1973) *''Adiós, poeta'' (about

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

, 1990) *''Machado de Assís'' (about the Brazilian writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, 2002)

Teaching

Jorge Edwards taught a course at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

during the autumn quarter of 2008. The course was entitled ''My personal history of the boom'

References

External links

Jorge Edwards in the Biblioteca Virtual CervantesBiography of Jorge EdwardsAwards and work
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Jorge 1931 births

Jorge Jorge is a Spanish and Portuguese given name. It is derived from the Greek name Γεώργιος (''Georgios'') via Latin ''Georgius''; the former is derived from (''georgos''), meaning "farmer" or "earth-worker". The Latin form ''Georgius'' ...

Living people People from Santiago 20th-century Chilean novelists 20th-century Chilean male writers Chilean columnists Chilean male novelists Chilean diplomats Members of the Chilean Academy of Language Chilean people of Welsh descent Premio Cervantes winners University of Chile alumni National Prize for Literature (Chile) winners Ambassadors of Chile to France Recipients of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise Evópoli politicians 21st-century Chilean novelists 21st-century Chilean male writers 20th-century Chilean short story writers Chilean essayists Chilean biographers 21st-century Chilean short story writers Chilean male short story writers