José Echegaray facts for kids
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José Echegaray
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| Born | José Echegaray y Eizaguirre 19 April 1832 Madrid, Spain |
| Died | 14 September 1916 (aged 84) Madrid, Spain |
| Resting place | Saint Isidore Cemetery |
| Occupation | Dramatist, civil engineer and mathematician |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Genre | Drama |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Literature 1904 |
José Echegaray y Eizaguirre (born April 19, 1832 – died September 14, 1916) was a very talented Spanish person. He was a civil engineer, a mathematician, and a statesman (which means he worked in government). He was also one of the most important Spanish playwrights (someone who writes plays) in the late 1800s. In 1904, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his many amazing plays that brought Spanish drama back to life.
Contents
Early Life and Education
José Echegaray was born in Madrid, Spain, on April 19, 1832. His father was a doctor and a professor of Greek. His mother was from Navarra.
He spent his childhood in Murcia, where he finished elementary school. It was in Murcia that he first fell in love with mathematics. As a child, he enjoyed reading books by famous writers like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Homer, and Honoré de Balzac. He also read about great mathematicians such as Carl Friedrich Gauss and Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
When he was fourteen, José moved to Madrid. He needed to earn money to attend the Engineering School. At age twenty, he graduated from the Madrid School of Civil Engineering. He was the top student in his class. After graduating, he moved to Almeria and Granada for his first jobs.
A Career in Teaching and Science
In 1854, José Echegaray began teaching at the Engineering School. He also worked as a secretary there. He taught many subjects, including mathematics, hydraulics, and different types of calculus. He taught there until 1868. From 1858 to 1860, he also taught at the Public Works Assistants' School.
He wrote important books like Problemas de geometría analítica (1865) and Teorías modernas de la física unidad de las fuerzas materiales (1867). He also joined the Society of Political Economy. He helped start a magazine called La Revista. José was very active in promoting free trade ideas through writing and speeches.
Because of his skills, he was chosen for government roles. When the revolution of 1868 happened and the monarchy was overthrown, he left his teaching job to join the new government.
Working in Government
José Echegaray also had a successful career in politics. Between 1867 and 1874, he held several important government jobs. He was the Minister of Education, then Minister of Public Works, and later the Finance Minister.
He stopped working in politics after the Bourbon monarchy was restored in 1874.
His Love for Theater
Theater was always José Echegaray's true passion. He had written some plays earlier, like La Hija natural and La Última Noche in 1867. But he truly became a famous playwright in 1874.
His plays often showed his strong sense of duty, which was well-known from his time in government. His stories often explored difficult choices about duty and what is morally right. He wrote many plays, just like the famous playwrights from Spain's Golden Age.
One of his most famous plays is El gran Galeoto. It's a drama written in the style of 19th-century melodrama. The play is about how untrue gossip can ruin a person's happiness. This play was even made into a silent film called The World and His Wife. It also inspired a later film, The Great Galeoto.
Other notable plays by Echegaray include:
- O locura o santidad (Saint or Madman?, 1877)
- Mariana (1892)
- El estigma (1895)
- La duda (1898)
- El loco Dios (God, the fool, 1900)
- La esposa del vengador (The Avenger's Wife, 1874)
- En el puño de la espada (In the Sword's Handle, 1875)
- En el pilar y en la cruz (On the Stake and on the Cross, 1878)
- Conflicto entre dos deberes (Conflict of Two Duties, 1882)
In 1904, José Echegaray won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He shared the award with the French poet Frédéric Mistral. He was the first Spaniard ever to win this prestigious prize.
José Echegaray continued to work actively until his death on September 14, 1916, in Madrid. Even in his old age, he kept writing. In the last part of his life, he wrote 25 or 30 books on mathematical physics. When he was 83, he famously said: "I cannot die, because if I am going to write my mathematical physics encyclopedia, I need at least 25 more years."
See also
In Spanish: José Echegaray para niños
