Literary critic, essayist, editor and screenwriter Ambrosio Fornet, one of the greatest researchers in Cuban publishing history, has died in Havana a few months after his 90th birthday, Casa de las Américas reported today on its social networks. .
“The @CasAmericas deeply regrets the loss this morning of one of his dearest and closest collaborators, Ambrosio Fornet (Veguitas de Bayamo, 1932). His work constitutes a fundamental part of the nation’s culture, which he always defended, ”laments the institution on its Twitter profile.
The @CasAmericas deeply regrets the loss this morning of one of his dearest and closest collaborators, Ambrosio Fornet (Veguitas de Bayamo, 1932). His work constitutes a fundamental part of the nation’s culture, which he always defended. pic.twitter.com/yYCDoaJvGk
— House of the Americas (@CasAmericas) April 5, 2022
Fornet, who finished his high school studies in Bayamo (1948), graduated in North American Literature at New York University (1957) and studied Hispanic Culture at the Complutense University of Madrid (1958-1959), according to his biography available at the Cuban Academy de la Lengua, of which he had been a member since March 1997.
Among his work, books such as One step away from the flood (stories, Barcelona, 1958); in three and two (Notebooks R, 1964); In black and white (1967) and The book in Cuba; 18th and 19th centuries (1994), research in which he rescued unpublished documents and a copious specialized bibliography, being his most ambitious project, dedicated to the Cuban publishing movement in colonial times.
Also, remember The perpetual alibi (2002); Carpentier or the ethics of writing (2006); The pitfalls of the trade; notes on cinema and society (2007) and Narrate the nation; black and white essays.
In the year 2000 he received the National Prize for Edition, and the National Prize for Literature in 2009. At this time, and regarding what is known as the “e-mail war”, his work of rereading and recovering Cuban authors of the diaspora, as well as their reflection and criticism on the so-called Five-Year Gray Period.
The cause of death and details related to his funeral are still unknown.
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