Manuel Chaves Nogales

Manuel Chaves Nogales (7th August 1897 – 8th May, 1944) was a Spanish journalist and writer. Politically he was a moderate left-wing republican democrat who defined himself as "antifascist and antirevolutionary". As such, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the Second Spanish Republic.

Biography

Chaves's father was himself a journalist, and he began working in the newspaper El Liberal in Seville whilst he was still very young. In 1922 he moved with his wife and daughter to Madrid and there he worked for the Heraldo de Madrid with other young promising journalists.

In 1927 he won the most prestigious journalist prize in Spain, the Mariano de Cavia, with a feature article on Ruth Elder, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Because he was enthusiastic about the future he embarked on many risky flights including an adventurous flight to the new USSR, which gave him material for three new books: Around the World in an Aircraft; A Bourgeois in Red Russia and A Bolshevik in Love.

In 1931 he was appointed editor in chief of the influential newspaper, Ahora, ideologically supportive of the Republic and Manuel Azaña.

The following years he travelled extensively throughout Europe and the result was two more books on the Russian revolution: What is Left of the Empire of Tzars, published in 1931, and Juan Martinez, Who was There, published in 1934 which tells the story of a Spanish dancer who was caught in Russia during the 1917 revolution.

In 1935 he published a book on bullfighting, Juan Belmonte, matador de toros, su vida y sus hazañas, which was translated into English (as Juan Belmonte, Killer of Bulls). It was also translated into French.