Estebanez Calderon - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

Serafin ESTEBANEZ CALDERON (1799-1867), a Spanish author, best known by the pseudonym of "El Solitario," was born at Malaga on the 27th of December 1799. His first literary effort was El Liston verde, a poem signed "Safinio" and written to celebrate the revolution of 1820. He was called to the bar, and settled for some time at Madrid, where he published a volume of verses in 1831 under the assumed name of "El Solitario." He obtained an exaggerated reputation as an Arabic scholar, and played a minor part in the political movements of his time. He died at Madrid on the 5th of February 1867. His most interesting work, Escenas andaluzas (1847), is in a curiouly affected style, the vocabulary being partly archaic and partly provincial; but,, despite its eccentric mannerisms, it is a vivid record of picturesque scenes and local customs. Estebanez Calderon is also the author of an unfinished history, De la conquista y perdida de Portugal (1883), issued posthumously under the editorship of his nephew, Antonio Canovas del Castillo.