Spanish Places: A Memoir

Spanish Places, written in the 1960s and revised for publication in 2003, is a personal memoir of a special kind. The author, a budding unpublished poet, travels to Spain in 1954 to write a long poem entitled Birth Of A Poet. This he completes in Cordoba, an ancient city in Andalusia which was once the capital of Moorish Spain. After refueling his coffers as a magazine editor and news correspondent, he returns to Spain six years later to continue his romance with the old world and with writing poetry. There he meets a girl, Elena, who captures his heart and with whom, after much travail and strenuous negotiations with her family, he eventually marries a year later. SPANISH PLACES describes three visits to Spain in a seven year period. The author also describes the changes that take place in daily life under Franco's reign, gives historical perspective and commentary on famous Spaniards such as writer-philosopher Ortega y Gasset, the painter Goya, and the bullfighter Manolete. The book ends on a happy note with wedding and honeymoon trip with quite a large cast of characters.