In 1947, he scored his sole commercial publication: No One Had Lit a Lamp. The same lucklessness hounded his literary career. He married four times perhaps his wives became tired of having to support him. Hernández was born in Uruguay and made his living at the piano, playing a variety of movie theaters and concert halls. He had a huge influence on Gabriel García Márquez and was admired by Julio Cortázar and Italo Calvino-but it didn’t do him much good. Felisberto Hernández (1902-1964) hasn’t been so lucky. Herman Melville is perhaps the most famous beneficiary of this treatment, which has also aided writers such as Nathanael West and Henry Green. Talented, original, admired by their more successful brethren and ignored by the public, they toil in obscurity, die unnoticed and, if they’re lucky, get revived and stay in print. The life of the writer’s writer is not generally to be envied. (Written for Media Snobs before it was taken down)
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