An unpublished book by José María Sánchez-Silva comes out

“Marcelino, bread and wine” is a Spanish film directed by Ladislao Vajda in 1954. It is one of the greatest commercial and critical successes in the history of Spanish cinema. It was based on the novel of the same name by Jose Maria Sanchez-Silva.

The film revolves around the story of Marcelino, a foundling boy who is taken in by some Franciscan friars. One day, while he is praying before a crucified man, he comes to life and begins to communicate with Marcelino.

The adaptation of Marcellin, bread and wine was a worldwide success, with more than 30 translations, two film adaptations (the one by Vajda and the one by Luigi omencini, in 1991), and the cartoon series. But its author wanted to write a reply to his editorial success, to “pay a debt to María (which I concealed in that work,” said José María Sánchez-Silva).

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Jose Maria Sanchez-Silva (Madrid, 1911-2002) was a journalist and writer. With an unhappy childhood, he ran through three workhouses, and thanks to his early love of reading, he became a journalist and, later, a writer. They came to grant him Medal Hans Christian Andersenconsidered the Nobel Prize for children’s literature.

Thus was born a novel that bears the name “Living Rose” and that Sánchez-Silva began writing in 1954 to conclude it in 1963. Sánchez-Silva wanted to publish the novel in 1963, but a series of setbacks delayed its publication until today, sixty years after it was written, which finally sees la luz on the Spanish label Voz de Papel.

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In the same way as “Marcelino, pan y vino”, the new novel also had a cinematographic future. The production company Andalucía Films. he prepared a contract with an advance of 500,000 pesetas in 1969. And Sánchez-Silva and Ladislao Vajda had the script ready. But no one can explain why that certain success did not go ahead.

Nobody succeeds in understanding how the possibility of publishing other best- sellerturned into a movie at the same time. The certain fact is that both the original of the novel, as well as the script and the notes for the cinematographic treatment of live rose they slept in a drawer for sixty years, in the family home of Sánchez-Silva. Until now that it finally comes to light.

AO JL