Joaquín Arderíus

Who was Joaquín Arderíus?

Joaquín Arderíus y Sánchez Fortún was a Spanish experimental and political novelist.

Arderíus studied in Madrid before taking engineering courses at the University of Liège. He abandoned these studies to dedicate himself to literature and leftist politics, and was jailed many times for his revolutionary activities during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. In 1927, Arderíus founded the very successful periodical Oriente. He also edited, together with Antonio Espina and José Díaz Fernández, the political periodical Nueva España from 1930 to 1931, with an initial print run of 40,000 copies. In 1929, he became affiliated with the Communist Party of Spain, but after 1933, he became aligned with the Republican Left.

His novels include: Mis mendigos; the Nietzschean Así me fecundó Zaratustra; the erotic Yo y tres mujeres; La duquesa de Nit; La espuela; Los príncipes iguales; Justo, a satire on Roman Catholicism; El comedor de la pensión Venecia; the political Campesinos, and Crimen. With José Díaz Fernández, he wrote Vida de Fermín Galán.