Federico Gana

Federico Gana ( born January 15, 1867 in Santiago de Chile, † April 22, 1926 ) was a Chilean writer.

Biography

Federico Gana was the son of Federico Gana Gana Munizaga and Rasario Castro. At 14 he wrote his first essay La prose patetica that devotes his deceased sister Ema. Federico Gana studied law in the University of Chile. In 1890, he completed his law degree and in the same year he published his first novel Pobre Vieja in the weekly newspaper La Actualidad in Santiago. After graduating, he went away to London, where he worked as a diplomat of the Chilean delegation. While he was in Europe, he visited Belgium, France and the Netherlands. His stay in Europe lasted a year.

In 1891 in Chile to revolt against the government of then-President José Manuel Balmaceda Fernández. As a result, Federico Gana returned in April 1892 back to Chile and ended his career as a diplomat. After his return he began to write the story La Señora.

In 1893, he worked as a lawyer, but due to illness he had to interrupt. Then he spent a long time on the family farm in Linares. There he learned to farm life up close to know and developed an interest in rural life. At this time he wrote the short story Un carácter. This story first appeared in 1894 in the journal El Año Literario titled Por un perro. In 1916 this story appeared under the title Un carácter in his book Días de campo.

In 1902 he met Blanca Subercaseaux del Río. 1906 his father died and the same year he married Blanca. They had five children together: Blanca Luz, Martha, Olga and Jose Francisco.

His stories appeared in several newspapers and magazines. From 1906 he began his stories in the magazine Zig Zag to publish. In 1926 he had to be hospitalized for asthma. On April 22, 1926 Federico Gana died.

Works

• Días de campo (1916 )
• Cuentos completos (1926 )
• Mancha de color y nuevos cuentos (1934 )