Rosa Chacel; Prolific Spanish Novelist, Poet

Rosa Chacel, 96, a novelist and poet who was one of Spain’s most prolific writers. Miss Chacel married Spanish painter Timoteo Perez Rubio and spent six years in Rome before returning in 1927 to Madrid, where she became noted for her dense and compact narrative style. She wrote her first novel, “Two-Way Station,” in Rome and published it in 1930 in Spain. In 1938, as Gen. Francisco Franco neared victory in the Spanish Civil War, Miss Chacel joined dozens of Spanish intellectuals in exile in South America. For 36 years, she lived in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. In 1945, she published one of her most popular novels, “Memoirs of Liticia Valle.” In 1974, a year before Franco’s death, she returned to Spain. Two years later she was awarded the Critics’ Prize for her novel “The Maravillas District.” She was awarded the National Award for Spanish Letters in 1987. In Madrid on Wednesday.