An Autobiographical Novel by Rafael Altamira

With the death of Rafael Altamira y Crevea in 1951 the Hispanic world mourned the end of a long career of an almost legendary prestige. Above all, his eminence as a historian stood out. Author of the first and the most satisfactory history of Spanish civilization, editor, bibliographer, professor, and director of research, he had been regarded for more than a half century as the foremost historian of Spain. He had also distinguished himself in pedagogical matters by promoting university extension work and by helping to reform the school system. With other patriotic Spaniards he had labored for years to bring about a general cultural and moral revival of his country. Altamira was one of the founders of the Pan-Hispanic movement to foster an intellectual community in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. An apostle of international law, he served for two decades as a judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. He taught for years at the universities of Oviedo, Madrid, and Mexico, and he was a guest at one time or another in many of the other great centers of learning in Europe and the Americas. A bibliography of his published works, which turned out to be incomplete, ran to more than thirty pages of titles.' From the time he was twenty until his final illness at eighty-five, Rafael Altamira was a vigorous force for the causes of scholarship, public enlightenment, and international justice. He did not diminish his standing when he chose to end his days as a voluntary exile in Mexico City rather than in his homeland while it was ruled by a regime that mocked his ideals. One of the penalties which Altamira paid for his distinction in several fields of endeavor was the eclipse of his not inconsequential contributions to literature. He frankly recognized and regretted this situation,2 and he hoped the eventual publication of his creative and critical efforts in several volumes of his Obras

Art · History of Education in Spain · Psychology · Spanish History and Politics