From Semprún to 'El Hormiguero'

PalmProfessor Fernando Hernández, an expert on the history of Spanish communism, tells us that when José Manuel Lara was criticized in the 1970s for having turned the Planeta Prize into a cooked award – after awarding it to a communist, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, and to another former communist, Jorge Semprún – his intellectuals sincerely replied, “four million pesetas?”

We could find mountains of anecdotes, but the owners of the publishing house have the merit not only of having found an infallible marketing formula, but of having adapted it to the new times. From those communists and authors of recognized and proven literary value – the list of award winners even includes Nobel Prize winners seduced by the check – we have gone on to television presenters and collaborators, always from the group to which the publishing house belongs. No one should be indignant or be naive that they have crowned Sonsoles Onega (with a novel savaged by critics) or now Juan del Val, collaborator and screenwriter ofThe Anthill.

When I first covered the Planeta Prize as a newcomer, I left the pre-award press conference with a Samsonite suitcase and a pile of gifted books, and with the winner identified among the ten finalists. Although they're always presented under a pseudonym. I had the report written the day before, just needing to add a few statements. That's why I was so surprised by the staging during the dinner where the award was presented. Rounds of voting with a renowned jury (writers already awarded by the publisher) in which finalists were chosen while you were served deconstructed veal, before the concept was widely known. There were never any mistakes. We always got it right. All you had to do was ask the day before and commit to not leaking it.

The grant is one million euros (the Treasury will take its share) and acts as an advance on the sales, which are also presumed to be in the millions, focused on the Christmas campaign. I feel sorry for the hundreds of people who send their originals from all over the world. Perhaps with the hope that someone will read them and see them published. They should start by finding a collaborator's seat at Antena 3 or La Sexta. Because there are no communists from the 70s left.