Jesús de Aragón facts for kids

Jesús de Aragón (born in 1893, died in 1973) was a Spanish writer. He wrote exciting stories in the fantasy and science fiction styles. Sometimes his stories even had a spooky, gothic feeling to them.

Many people called him the "Spanish Jules Verne". This is because some of his stories were similar to those by the famous French author, Jules Verne. However, Aragón's writing style was more like the fast-paced stories found in pulp magazines. He was inspired by American pulp stories like The Shadow and Doc Savage, which were translated into Spanish.

Early Life and Talents

Jesús de Aragón was born in 1893 in a place called Valsain, in Spain. When he was just six years old, his father passed away. After this sad event, his family moved to the big city of Madrid.

As a young man, Jesús de Aragón was known for his beautiful handwriting. He was so good at it that he became a professional scribe. This meant he copied entire books by hand for a living. He also went to college and studied to become a railway engineer.

Starting His Writing Career

In the 1920s, Aragón began writing articles for a small newspaper in Madrid. These articles were quite popular and helped him get noticed.

In 1924, his writing caught the eye of a book editor. This editor hired him to work on a book called The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks. This novel was written by another Spanish author, Emilio Carrere. Later, this book even became a movie with the same name.

Aragón's job was to fix mistakes in the book. But many people believe he did much more than that. They think he actually wrote large parts of the novel. This is because the book seemed to be made from many of Carrere's older short stories. It felt like it wasn't fully finished by Carrere.

His Own Exciting Novels

Even though Jesús de Aragón didn't get credit for writing parts of The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks, this job helped him get his own book deal. In the very same year, 1924, he quickly wrote two of his own novels.

His first novel was Viaje al fondo del océano, which means Journey to the bottom of the ocean. His second was Cuarenta mil kilómetros a bordo del aeroplano "Fantasmo", or Forty Thousand Kilometers Aboard the Airplane Fantasma.

You might notice that these titles sound a bit like Jules Verne's books. Journey to the bottom of the ocean was similar to Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. And Forty Thousand Kilometers Aboard the Airplane Fantasma reminded readers of Around the World in Eighty Days. Aragón definitely took inspiration from Verne's amazing Voyages extraordinaires series.

Writing Under a Secret Name

Jesús de Aragón also worked for a gas company in Madrid called Fábrica de gas de Madrid. But he still wrote stories to earn extra money. Sometimes, he published exciting pulp stories using a secret name, “Captain Sirius”.

During the time of Francoist Spain, when fascist rule was common, it was popular for writers to use strong, military-sounding pen names. So, "Captain Sirius" fit right in. He also wrote serious school textbooks about accounting using his real name.

Later Works and Legacy

Aragón's next big novel, Los piratas del aire (The Air Pirates), came out five years later. This story was about a bad guy named Abdahalla-Fan. He had a gorilla helper and flew a war zeppelin shaped like a dragon! He used it to threaten all of India. But an English hero, Lord Ewerard Gleenmore, bravely defeated him.

Jesús de Aragón stopped writing in 1964. Not much is known about what he did after that until he passed away in 1973. Some of his books were translated into French and Hungarian. However, his works have rarely, if ever, been translated into English.

See also

In Spanish: Jesús de Aragón para niños