Ramon Gomez de La Serna was born in Madrid in 1888. His first book was published when he was only 16. He wrote a lot, about where he lived (the Rastro, a Madrid district) and some essays about artists and writers he likes.
In 1909, he moves to Paris and finds a job as a secretary. When his mother dies, his dad gives him the money to start his magazine, Prometeo, where he publishes a lot of authors but also his own texts. All in all, the Prometeo experience last four years (1908-1912). In 1912, de La Serna decides to move back to Madrid. He spends all his saturdays at the Pombo Cafe, where he meets the European inteligenzia and the future avant-garde.
Ramon (as everyone calls him) is discovered in France in late 20s and his books are translated in French by Jean Cassou and Valéry Larbaud, among others.
Ramon de La Serna invents what he himself calls "the Greguerias". They are short aphorisms, dark poems or small notes, where humor is always the kernel. That is why (mostly in France) he is known as a "comic". Until 1962, he publishes six editions around the world of his
Selecciones, based on his Greguerias. At this time he's famous for his sublime humorous metaphors (I strongly believe, but it's not proved, that Pablo Neruda was greatly inspired by these and it reminds me of Douglas Adams in some ways). It's hard to tell if it's pure delirium, philosophy or poetry. Ramon writes a lot of haikus and some people made a comparison with Jules Renard.
Since his Selecciones are distributed everywhere, he is still considered as a "comic". But if you explore the rest of his work, you will find a really dark humor, mindblasting neologisms and crazy prose.
Now it's 1936. Spain. Gomez de La Serna married a jewish girl from Argentina (Luisa Sofovich). He has every reasons to be afraid. He flees with his wife to Argentina, where he will stay for most of the rest of his life (in Buenos Aires).
But, and that's why I hate him while I love him at the same time, he makes a trip to Spain in 1949 (where the infamous midget Francisco Franco is still ruling and muting all the birds (dixit Léo Ferré)). A lot of people will never forgive him for that. His exile broke him, he's worried and depressed. He's even converted to Catholicism and wants to revise his old writings. But that doesn't stop him, he still writes a lot. His autobiography in 1948 (Automoribundia, still full of black humor), Letters to Myself in 1956 (he actually really wrote them to himself), Tango Interpretation and Cinéville.
He is mostly unknown in North America but he is still a pillar of modern litterature. It's hard to fit him in a distinct category, he went into Automatism, Surrealism, etc.
Ramon Gomez de La Serna died totally forgotten in 1967.
I don't know (and doubt) if he has been translated in English. But a few French publishers still distribute parts of his monumental work (Cent Pages and André Dimanche among others).
Some funny quotes (In French, because that's all I all from him):
La fraise est exquise, malgré son visage marqué par la vérole.
En apprenant la nouvelle, le sofa s'évanouit. (THAT is Douglas Adams-like)
Il faudrait faire des tombes avec périscope.
Qui coupe le saucisson bat de la fausse monnaie.
On sent que le vent ne sait pas lire à ce qu'il tourne les pages n'importe comment quand il prend un livre. --- I will try to translate that one: It's pretty sure the wind is illiterate because when he takes a book, he turns the pages in every way.
Some titles (I won't try to translate them and there are many MORE anyway):
Seins (1917, an infinite description of all the possible types of breasts, marvellous)
El doctor inverosímil (1921)
Gustave l'incongru (1922)
El torero Caracho (1926)
Polycéphale et madame (1932)
Flor de greguerías (1933)
Cinéville (1948)
Lettres à moi-même (1956)
Obras completas (1956)
Nostalgia de Madrid
La mujer de ambar
Some useful links (though I found them after writing this, so you may find contradictions):
http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~ngzF92/ramon/ramon.html
http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/special/special.html
Also, if you like him, you may want to read San-Antonio
(real name Frederic Dard - died in 2000), their styles are very similar.
My usual disclaimer
I speak French. When I write 'long' texts in English, I'm sure to make a lot or spelling and grammar errors. So PLEASE send me a message in you find
any error here. I will only make me better. Thanks to all of you who already did with my other writeups.
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