Javier Marias

Born in Madrid on September 20, 1951, Javier MaríasHe was the youngest of the five sons (the eldest, Julianín, died at the age of three) of the famous philosopher Julián Marías and Professor Dolores Franco Maneras. His family spends long periods of time in the US, where his mother teaches at different universities, such as Wellesley College in Massachusetts. There, he stays at Jorge Guillén’s house, whose upper floor is occupied by the Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov. He received a solid education at the Colegio Estudio, heir to the Institución Libre de Enseñanza, founded by Ángeles Gasset, Jimena Menéndez Pidal and Carmen García del Diestro. He graduated in Philosophy and Letters (branch of English Philology) from the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1970 he wrote his first novel, “Los dominios del lobo”, which would come out the following year. Between the writing of the work and its publication,

His works include “Corazón tan blanco”, “Tomorrow in the battle, think of me”, “Black back of time”, “Your face tomorrow” and “Los enamoramientos”. On June 29, 2006, he was elected a member of the Royal Spanish Academy, in which he occupied the R chair, which became vacant after the death of Fernando Lázaro Carreter. In 2012, Javier Marías was awarded the Spanish National Narrative Prize. He rejected the award, but assured that he appreciated “the kindness of the jury” and that he hoped that he would not take his position “as ugly.” “I am being consistent with what I have always said, that I would never receive an institutional award. If the PSOE had been in power, I would have done the same… I have rejected any remuneration that came from the public treasury.

One of his brothers, the film critic and economist Miguel Marías, has been director of the Spanish Film Library and General Director of the ICAA. He achieved some popularity as a regular collaborator on the TVE program “Qué grande es el cine!”. Nephew and cousin, respectively, of the filmmakers Jesús Franco and Ricardo Franco , Javier Marías collaborated with them in his youth translating scripts. With the latter he co-wrote the film The Annual Disaster . He had a confrontation with Elías and Gracia Querejeta , for the film adaptation of “Todas las almas”. The film, titled The Last Voyage of Robert Rylands, from 1996, defaced, in his opinion, his book beyond recognition, for which he demanded that all mention of his name and his novel be removed from the credits. He began a long judicial process that, after two sentences favorable to the writer in 1998 and 2002, ended on March 7, 2006 with the rejection, by the Supreme Court, of the appeal presented by the producer of Elías Querejeta .

Javier Marías appears briefly as an actor in the short Amo tu cama rica , by Emilio Martínez Lázaro . Finally, the feature film While They Sleep , by Wayne Wang , part of his eponymous story.