TypeTown #43: “Everyone is a bore to someone.”
🇪🇸 Gerald Brenan on keeping busy in the Alpujarras mountains
Hola! Como estas?
Fresh from our Christmas revival, let’s give this thing one more whirl, shall we?
Our journey today heads deep into the Alpujarras mountains and the Spanish village of Yegen.
It was there, down a dusty path 106 years ago, that Gerald Brenan rocked up with a remarkable 2,000 books in tow.
He promptly fell in love — with women, the landscape, the lifestyle.
By the time of his death, in 1984, his works The Spanish Labyrinth (1943) and South from Granada (1957) had made him one of the definitive voices on Mediterranean culture and history.
“It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer.”
Time at the typewriter, it appears, was part therapy, part obsession.
“I have never been able to believe that anything had really and thoroughly happened to me until I had written it down.”
There was plenty to write about.
Having agreed the princely sum of £6 per year for the rent on his Andalucian house, he began to work through his library.
And while rural Spain can be a quiet place, Brenan kept himself occupied.
In between seducing his best friend’s wife, fathering a child with the maid, and marrying American poet Gamel Woolsey in Rome, he produced some of his adopted region’s most enduring work.
“Everyone is a bore to someone. That is unimportant. The thing to avoid is being a bore to oneself.”
He was also a member of the Bloomsbury Group, a collective of British writers and artists almost all of whom had passed through the University of Cambridge on their path to adulthood.
From the beginning, though, our man in Yegen was not one for conformity.
He spent his late teens walking 1,560 miles through China and another 10 months mastering German.
He even had plans to join the Indian police force, until the First World War came along.
Perhaps that’s why he thought nothing of firing shots at some of his most renowned contemporaries.
“(Henry) Miller is not really a writer but a non-stop talker to whom someone has given a typewriter.”
After settling into married life, he moved with Woolsey to Churriana, near Malaga. Today, their house is now a cultural centre.
But his time in Yegen elicits the most romantic reactions.
First, he unpacked the colossal chest of books.
Then he trekked 57 miles to Almeria to buy second-hand furniture.
And he thought nothing of racking up another 71 miles just to meet friends.
Whether reading, writing, or walking, dedicated toil was always there.
“We are closer to the ants than to the butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure.”
WATCH» Gerald Brenan documentary (1974) - BBC/TVE
READ» Gerald Brenan, and the literary spirit of Bloomsbury in the Alpujarra- El Legado Andalusi
READ» Andalusian home of British writer Gerald Brenan takes on new life as a cultural centre - Independent
READ» Follow in the footsteps of Gerald Brenan around the Alpujarra - Andalucia Tourist Community
TypeTown is free — and always will be. But it’s not cheap, in time or effort. If you have the capacity, please consider buying us a coffee.
Worth pausing the platen
📬 Tech through time: the typewriter (exhibition) - Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Paris
📬 How this retiree is trying to bring typewriters back - CNN
📬 The Art of Type: Living exhibit showcases ‘striking’ impact of typewriters - Emory University
And finally… typewriters in the wild
In this incredible tattoo…
… and in this typewriter statue in Indiana.
Until next time
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