Inveterate reader, Queen Letizia wanted to show her support to the booksellers of the Cuesta de Moyano de Madrid on the occasion of his centenary. It is a very entrenched and emblematic permanent cultural corner of the capital attached to the Botanical Garden, which on Sunday will meet a century of history and that will serve as a prelude to the Book Fair that will take place at the end of May and that Doña Letizia usually inaugurate every year in the park of El Retiro. The anecdote of the day has starred her when she has stopped to speak with the microphones of the radio station Madrid of the SER chain, where she has valued how important this means of communication for her is.
For this appointment, Doña Letizia has opted for a look In Black, Black Vichy Coat, Bag with Tachuelas and some Mary Jane shoes. The Queen has held an encounter with the booksellers and the honor partners of the Citizen Association, I am from La Cuesta, coinciding with the European Day held this Friday. In addition, coinciding with the real visit, a vote has been made public to choose the favorite literary beginnings of booksellers and illustrious honor partners of the entity.
© GTRES© GTRES© GTRESThen, Doña Letizia has been touring the positions and has taken, among other books, The old book sellerby Stefan Zweig, whose price is 13 euros. It is a copy with stories for bibliophiles that brings together small texts and stories. The edition with which Queen Letizia has been made is based on Zweig’s free prose, all written in the material and intellectual fullness of her life, when nothing could make him suspect that in less than ten years he was going to find himself in a situation very similar to that of the protagonist. Zweig was born in a rich bourgeois family in Vienna, which allowed him to train as an artist and writer without going through bohemia and curse. Thanks to his fortune he traveled and met great figures like Thomas Mann, Paul Valéry, James Joyce, Rilke or Freud. He has been the author of novels, essays, biographies, stories and travel books that made him one of the most acclaimed writers of his time.
© GTRES© GTRESThe queen has also taken the book Fantastic fabless From Ambrose Bierce, a most entertaining book composed of brilliant stories where the most acidic and black humor is combined with philosophical speculation, the work of the famous author of The devil’s dictionary. At one point on the tour, Doña Letizia has given the copies to her field assistant, who has put it in her wallet along with the rest of the volumes.
-© GTRES© GTRESBefore leaving, Queen Letizia has stopped with two Radio Madrid journalists, the station of the SER chain, where she has commented on her hundred years of history. “The truth is that the radio in Spain has just turned a hundred years and you next month you are going to celebrate that first centenary of Radio Madrid, so congratulations to all the people who work in the SER chain in Madrid, to the listeners too and congratulations to a media, the radio, which of course, exhibits, as never a strength and a levage of youth that are enviable. Without the radio. Celebrating the radio is a fantasy so if someone calls me old, I always with the radio and the book. Congratulations and congratulations, “he concluded.
The most read street in Madrid
Previously, this Thursday, the Madrid headquarters of the Institute Français d’Espagne has been the scene of the alliance between Bouquinistes of Paris and the booksellers of Moyano, since both are the only permanent book fairs and street feet that are still active in Europe. The Permanent Book Fair of Madrid, currently known as La Cuesta de Moyano or ‘The most read street in Madrid’, as defined by the writer Francisco Umbral, was born in 1925 on Claudio Moyano Street, a nineteenth -century politician who promoted the longestary educational law in the history of Spain. His statue, along with another from the writer and bibliophile Pío Baroja, give way to this literary outdoor room.
© Europa PressPreviously, the booksellers were settled in the market of the Atocha Square, where they shared clientele with florists and fruit trees. In 1919 they opened their booths next to the Botanist gate, officially constituting as a book fair. In 1925, the Madrid City Council moved those booksellers to Claudio Moyano street. Currently, this enclave is integrated into the Paseo del Prado and the Retiro Jardines, known as the landscape of the arts and sciences and declared World Heritage by UNESCO.
© Europa Press© GTRESMoyano’s slope has been frequently visited by illustrious characters such as José Ortega y GassetErnest Hemingway, María Zambrano, Pío Baroja, Gómez de la Serna, Azorín, Patti Smith, Lorca, Carmen Iglesias, Francisco Umbral, José Louis Garci, Rosa Montero, Christina Rosenvinge or Pérez- Reverte, among many others. On the occasion of this centenary, the Association of Libreros and the Madrid City Council have launched an extensive program of activities that includes literary routes, guided walks, musical performances, competitions, gathering cycles, recitals, exhibitions and other commemorative actions for all audiences.
