GASPAR NÚÑEZ DE ARCE: BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Gaspar Núñez de Arce (1832 -1903) was a Spanish writer, academic and politician who lived during the 19th century. As a writer he stood out mainly in the genres of dramaturgy and lyrical poetry, with a style that mediates between Romanticism and literary realism. He was also an acute chronicler and journalist during the 1860s.

He achieved great virtuosity in the forms of his writing. His favorite themes for plays were moral, political and historical dramas. His poems are characterized by formal care, the abundance of descriptions and the development of the inner voice.

Gaspar Núñez de Arce. Source: See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

In the political sphere, he was a prominent member of the liberal progressive Sagasta party during the provisional government that followed the overthrow of Isabel II.

He was, apart, the author of the Manifesto to the Nation published in the Gazette after the September Revolution. He held various high-profile government positions during the 1870s and 1880s.

Biography

Birth, education and youth

Gazpar Núñez de Arce was born in Valladolid, Spain, on August 4, 1832. Due to an error in his birth certificate, some historians place this event on September 4 instead of August 4. This disagreement was clarified by the Valladolid historian Narciso Alonso Manuel Cortés.

His father was Don Manuel Núñez, who moved with his family to Toledo when Gaspar was very young to work in the post office of that city. His mother was Mrs. Eladia de Arce.

In Toledo, Gaspar became a voracious reader and spent most of his childhood studying in the Cathedral library, under the tutelage of the religious Ramón Fernández de Loaysa.

During adolescence, his parents tried to induce him to enter a diocesan seminary to pursue an ecclesiastical career, but Núñez de Arce objected. At the age of seventeen, his first theatrical drama, entitled Love and pride, was premiered in Toledo, which was very well received by the Toledo public and earned him the name of the adoptive son of the city.

Shortly after, on August 25, 1850, some fragments of the story The Devil and the Poet were published in the Madrid newspaper El popular. This work, along with Love and Pride, were the first lyrics by Núñez de Arce to be made public.

After refusing to enter the priesthood, he moved to Madrid, where he enrolled in some classes. He began to work as editor of the liberal-leaning newspaper El Observador, where he began to sign his articles and chronicles with the pseudonym "El Bachiller Honduras". Later he himself founded a newspaper named after his pseudonym.

Political life in the liberal party

Between 1859 and 1860 he participated as a chronicler in the Campaign of Africa, a conflict that confronted Spain with the Sultanate of Morocco. Many of these chronicles were published in the liberal newspaper La Iberia.

After this experience, he published his Memories of the Africa Campaign, a kind of diary in which the details of this confrontation are related.

This foray into political journalism prepared him for the positions that he had to carry out later. In 1860 he joined the Liberal Union party, recently founded by Leopoldo O'Donnell.

Marriage

Once the African campaign was over, on February 8, 1861, he married Doña Isidora Franco. In the following years he was appointed Governor of Logroño and deputy for the province of Valladolid.

Exile

In 1865 he was exiled and imprisoned in Cáceres due to his writings against Ramón María Narváez, a radical conservative and at that time president of the cabinet under the mandate of Queen Elizabeth II.

After completing his exile, and suffering from health problems, he and his wife moved to Barcelona. There he wrote one of his most famous poems, The Doubt, signed on April 20, 1868. It was later compiled in the poetry book Grits of combat (1875).

The September Revolution

While Núñez de Arce was still in Barcelona, ​​the September Revolution broke out, in which he participated as secretary of the revolutionary Junta of this city. The result of this revolt was the dethronement of Isabel II and the establishment of a provisional government.

Transfer to Madrid

After the events of September, he moved to Madrid where he was in charge of writing the Manifesto to the Nation, published in the Gaceta on October 26 of that same year. From then on he was the editor and proofreader of the various documents of his party.

Affiliation to the liberal progressive party

In 1871, once Unión Liberal was dissolved, he joined the progressive liberal party of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, to which he belonged until his death.

There, in that party, he served in various positions. He was councilor of state between 1871 and 1874; secretary general of the presidency in 1872; Minister of Overseas, Interior and Education in 1883; Senator for life from 1886 and Governor of Banco Hipotecario in 1887.

Participation in the RAL

As a writer and academic, he was appointed member of the Royal Academy of Language on January 8, 1874 and president of the Association of Spanish Writers and Artists between 1882 and 1903.

Retirement and death

Burial of Gaspar Núnez de Arce. Source: Asqueladd

From 1890 he retired from political office due to his delicate health condition. He died at his residence in Madrid on June 9, 1903, due to stomach cancer. His remains were transferred to the Pantheon of illustrious men of the 19th century.

The first biography of the writer, Núñez de Arce: notes for his biography, was published in 1901, in Madrid, under the authorship of his close friend José del Castillo y Soriano.

His work has been disseminated and studied in Spanish-speaking countries by important exponents of this language, such as the poets Miguel Antonio Caro and Rubén Darío.

Plays

Plays

Among his works as a playwright, the following can be cited: El bund de leña (1872), Debts of honor (1863), El laurel de la Zubia (1865, La jota aragonesa (1866), Herir en la sombra (1866), Who must pay (1867) and providential Justice (1872).

References

1. Gaspar Núñez de Arce. (S. f.). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered: es.wikipedia.org
2. Gaspar Núñez de Arce. (S. f.). (N / a): Biographies and Lives, the online biographical encyclopedia. Recovered: biografiasyvidas.com
3. Nuñez de Arce, Gaspar. (S. f.). (N / a): Escritores.org. Recovered: writers.org
4. Gaspar Núñez de Arce. (S. f.). (N / a): European-American Illustrated Universal Encyclopedia. Recovered: philosophia.org
5. Gaspar Núñez de Arce. (S. f.). Spain: Spain is Culture. Recovered: espaaescultura-tnb.es