Evening star., 1947-12-07

ing and writing during all of the
year.
Says one Madrid publisher: IT
do not think the literary picture
has changed since last year-life
goes on much the same" Which
means that the average Spanish
citizen is reading what the average
American citizen is reading: Light
fiction, limitations of American
Westerns, translations of British
and American mysteries, the comics
and magazines devoted to bull
fighting. No trend is sharply ap-
parent, except that church and
state have drawn closer together,
resulting in a stricter enforcing of
the Vatican index of books. An
atole France, Stendahl, Balzac and
other classics have long been CEN
Sored, but in given localities the
church authorities have the right to
apply the principles governing the
placing of any modern book upon
the index: What constitutes the
common good and what the in
dividual good.
Only few weeks ago under the
Ministry of Education, the govern
ment reorganlzed its censorship
board regulating motion pictures to
include one ecclesiastical member
with the power of veto. This will
certainly limit the type of film
shown at home and abroad Can
this be perhaps a measure to pre-
vent the infiltration of communism
into the movie, a fear which is agi-
tating our own House Committee
on Un-American Activities? :.
Patriotic and Scientific
Being Encouraged
"The Song of Bernadette" has been
showing for over a year, and in the
big cinemas on the Gran Via, where
the usual run is three weeks, Bette
Davis in THE Old Maid" has been
packing them in for six months.
Autumn successes are Week End
at the Waldorf, '"Typhoon," Casa
blanca" and Donald Duck-none
obviously with dangerous political
implications.
Literary prizes are on the increase,
many sponsored by the Ministry of
Education encouraging patriotic
and scientific works. The Premio
Eugenio Nadal of 1916 10000 pese-
tas) was awarded to J. M. Gironella
Tor his "Un Hombre." This novel
follows closely the life of the author
from the time he was a seminary
student cat 12) en- through his va
rlouS business adventures as Office
boy In a bank, apprentice in a dis
tilery, dealer in pictures, textiles,
rags for paper, secondhand books
and all interviewer with an init
mate mother-and-son relationship
and the sons gnawing desire to
Know what is my mother really
llke?. The second Nadal prize was
gwen to "Cinco Sombras de Mujer'
CF1ve Shadows of Woman'), by
Eulalla Galvarioto. Charming"
writes by Madrid correspondent,
and far more popular than I'm
Hombre.' That's all l know about
1t, except that the title may reveal
the reason why.
.avelock Ellis of Spain
And the Young Poets
Whether this creating of many
new literary prizes will also create
great literature is something to
watch. Freedom of thought does
not always flourish under censor
ship, although it was no hindrance
TO Voltaire. And Beaumarchais got
his hbelous Marriage of Figaro"
produced at the Theatre Francois in
spite OF the fears and foamings of
Louis XVI. But certainly these
prizes are encouraging to the young
writer's, because for a long time the
scene has been dominated
by such older men as Perez GaldoS,
Plo aBroja, Ramon Perez de Ayala,
Valle-Inclan, Azorin. Unamuno and
Maranon.
DIR. G. Maranon is writing as i'm
pressively as ever He is a doctor
of medicine, breaches what he prac-
tees, has been much translated,
especially by the Germans, and with
his treatises on the life sexual he
might be dubbed the Havelock Ellis
Df Spain. His fairly recent eel
Conde Duque de Olivares: La Passion
1e Manar" is the biography of
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