Jose Castillo-Puche, 84; Novelist Wrote of His Friend Hemingway

Jose Luis Castillo-Puche, 84, a prize-winning Spanish novelist who wrote a memoir about his friend, American author Ernest Hemingway, died Monday in Madrid of pneumonia.

A prolific writer and journalist, Castillo-Puche befriended Hemingway in Spain in the late 1950s. The Spaniard became known in the U.S. in 1974 when his first book on Hemingway was translated into English, “Hemingway in Spain: A Personal Reminiscence of Hemingway’s Years in Spain by his Friend.”

Castillo-Puche collaborated on several other books about Hemingway and wrote screenplays for a film and TV series about the American adventurer and writer. After Hemingway committed suicide in 1961, Castillo-Puche did much to illuminate how Hemingway developed a passion for Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

Hemingway Society spokesmen said Castillo-Puche helped Americans understand Spain, providing an essential bridge to enjoying Spain-based Hemingway books such as “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “The Sun Also Rises.”

Born in Yecla, Spain, Castillo-Puche wrote more than a dozen novels and won several awards, including two National Literature Prizes. During the Franco dictatorship, he wrote for the Spanish daily Ya and later for ABC.