Isabel Allende

Julia writes:
Born on August 2nd, 1942 in Peru, Isabel Allende has become one of the most popular women writers in Latin America. She is known for her amazing works of writing such as The House of the Spirits (1982) and City of Beasts (2002). Between the years of 1953 and 1958, Allende’s mother married and moved the family several times. Living in Bolivia, Lebanon, Europe, and other locations, Allende attented private schools and was also home schooled for some time. After returning to Chile in 1962, she met a man named Miguel Frias, whom she married and had two children with. Allende found a job at United Nations Food Organization in Santiago, working as a secretary. Four years later, she began her journalism career. She worked as an editor, jouralist, and advice columnist for the magizine, Paula as well as an editor and journalist for a children’s magazine called Mampato.  In 1973, Isabel’s uncle Salvador Allende was assassinated when the military coup took over Chile’s government. Isabel decided it was not safe to stay there, so she fled to Venezuela with Miguel and her two kids. Reminiscing on the event, Allende said, “I felt, as many Chileans did, that my life had been cut into pieces, and that I had to start over again”. After a while, Isabel began to feel separated not just physically, but mentally, from her family. She especially longed to see her grandfather, who was on the verge of death. Allende wrote him a long letter, assuring him that he would always remain in her heart. This letter was to later become The House of Spirits, her first novel. It became an international bestseller, a story centered on the brutal past of Chile and a family’s who suffers through them for generations. The House of Spirits triggered Allende’s extreme success. She began teaching literature in places such as University of Virginia, New Jersey, University of Califorinia, Charlottesville Montclair College, and at Berkeley. Isabel went on tour in San Jose, California, to promote her second novel, Of Love and Shadows. Despite all this success, terrible tragedy striked in 1992, when Allende’s daughter Paula died in her arms of a blood disease. Isabel was deeply affected and stayed at home crying for a few years. After some thinking, she realized that though her daughter had vanished from the world, she needed to move on and continue to write. She decided to honor her daughter by dedicating a novel to her, which she titled Paula. In honor of her daughter, she also created the Isabel Allende Fund in 1996. Allende donated all of the money that she earned for Paula to this fund. Though the fund was named after Isabel, it was to help those in need. Since Paula’s death, Isabel has continued to write novels, some which have been made into operas, movies, and even ballets. Allende’s books are read and loved internationally, translated into over twenty-seven different languages. Isabel loves to share her writing just as much as she loves the process of creating a novel, and continues to write to this day.


[ http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/allende.html ]http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/allende.html
 
[ http://www.freewebs.com/isabel-allende/biography.htm ]http://www.freewebs.com/isabel-allende/biography.htm
 
[ http://www.isabelallendefoundation.org/iaf.php?l=en&p=isabel ]http://www.isabelallendefoundation.org/iaf.php?l=en&p;=isabel
 
[ http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Isabel_Allende\ ]http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Isabel_Allende\
 
[ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3672060/Isabel-Allende-kith-and-tell.html ]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3672060/Isabel-Allende-kith-and-tell.html