"If he had made his career outside of Spain and had not signed the contracts so young, he would have won much more. Besides, he never had an advisor or literary agent."
Corín Tellado, by Raúl Rivero
Critics always considered his work as minor literature , but Corín Tellado (Vélez, Asturias, 1927-Gijón, 2009) sold 400 million books. Envy and machismo on the part of his fellow writers? "Of course," says his daughter Begoña. The Asturian met all the requirements - stereotypes - so that they would not value it. "She was a woman and wrote love novels." A naive pornographer, according to Cabrera Infante. However, she has been the most read author in Spanish of all time. In that he surpassed all, except the manpa of Lepanto.
Ten years have passed since his death and his heiress (along with his other son, Txomin) , recalls his figure. "Mom saw Save me , of course. So do my daughters, a prosecutor and the other inspector of the Treasury. They don't miss Big Brother . In this life you have to see and read everything."
Corín (de Socorrín) Tellado had an overflowing imagination . He wrote his first novel at age 17 to support his family after the death of his father. "The words flowed to her. She thanked God for that. It was her gift. She wrote faster than she could speak, made a novel in two days, " recalls her daughter.
He sat in front of the blank sheet at five in the morning with his inseparable pack of tobacco. "He killed himself to work in winter to be able to take two months in summer and be with us."
Begoña regrets that her mother was pigeonholed. "He also made some beautiful stories of his childhood, and here we have other great unpublished novels," he claims. "A book by Danielle Steele was seen on any beach , instead my mother's, no. Maybe because of the hard covers ... Steele transmitted emotions worse."
Tellado starred in a scandal in Gijón when he separated in the 60 to 34 of a Bilbao who lived from it. "My father came to see us once a year and he would meet us at a hotel. We have barely had a relationship."
Corin received offers to move to Miami, where he sold a lot, but did not want to flee from Gijón and accepted with resignation the stigma of a single mother. He never rebuilt his life and gave himself to his children. Where did he get those passionate stories then? "She was very talkative and listening. A lady told her about her life on the bus and then captured her, but it was never the same."
The censorship
He learned to circumvent censorship, but he was very limited. "That is why he never specified the historical framework in his novels, which he used to develop in the United States. In addition, he put his protagonists in a room and from there, he left everything to the reader's imagination. He knew what they were going to cross out." At the end of his life, he wrote erotic novels, but with a pseudonym "to protect his children."
However, Gray's 50 shadow phenomenon would have horrified him . "Oh, yes. But not because of demure or morality. He didn't like such explicit things."
The writer, who read Oscar Wilde and García Márquez and was interviewed by Vargas Llosa, was open minded but with certain qualms. "His mother, my grandmother, was very macho," recalls his daughter, who acknowledges that Corín Tellado was the woman "and the man" of the house, because he kept many of his relatives. "He was liberal, but he gave more freedom to my brother than me. Besides, she lived well with Franco. The dictatorships did not like her, but she would have denied what is happening in Catalonia now."
In another era, Corín Tellado would have been a millionaire . "He made money, but we have never been rich. We lived very well, but if he had made his career outside of Spain and had known the greatest success, since he signed the contracts when he was very young, he would have won much more. In addition, he never had an advisor no literary agent. She always kept her accounts. "
Then he suffered the notorious conflict with Bruguera publishing house that brought to trial and lose money. "It was the great disgust of his life." Its editor sued her for leaving with another and the courts proved her right. Tellado had to return to Bruguera in tears.
Regarding his small fortune, "he invested in heritage, he left us a house for each son and made a beautiful house in Viavélez ... But we both work and we are not rich. I did journalism but I am a solicitor. And my brother is attorney". They still have copyright revenues, "but few. All his work is digitized . We don't sell anything on paper anymore."
Another curiosity of Tellado is that he did not know how to cook and did not like to eat. "He always said that if there was a pill to feed on, he would be happy." Boast woman, he gave his whims. "Good bags, good colognes, good clothes ... If you bought a jewel it was good. But she barely had a social life. She said she never got bored with herself . She needed her moments of solitude."
According to the criteria of
Know more
Comments
This news has no comments yet
Be the first in give your opinion
0 comments