José María Pemán
Pemán y Pemartín (8 May 1897 – 19 July 1981) was a Spanish journalist, poet, playwright, novelist, essayist and monarchist intellectual. He was a member of Francisco Franco's Falange movement.[1]
Also recorded as José Maria Peman · Jose Maria Peman · Jose Maria Peman Pemartin
José María Pemán

Obras completas de Juan Vázquez de Mella IX, p. X: https: hl=es pg=PR10#v=onepage q f=false · Public domain
- Birth Name
- José María Pemán y Pemartín
- Born
- 8 May 1897
- Birthplace
- Cádiz, Spain
- Died
- 19 July 1981
- Place of death
- Cádiz, Spain José María Pemán y Pemartín (8 May 1897 – 19 July 1981) was a Spanish journalist, poet, playwright, novelist, essayist and monarchist intellectual.
- Full name
- José María Pemán y Pemartín.
- Nationality
- Spain.
- Occupation
- screenwriter, poet, journalist, writer, politician, lawyer, playwright and orator.
- Fields
- literature, poetry, politics and journalism.
- Honours
- collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Mariano de Cavia' Price, Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III, Grand Cross of the Aeronautical Merit - White Decoration, Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise and Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru.
- Languages
- Spanish.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Pemán y Pemartín (8 May 1897 – 19 July 1981) was a Spanish journalist, poet, playwright, novelist, essayist and monarchist intellectual. He was a member of Francisco Franco's Falange movement.[1]
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Note VALÉORINE
José María Pemán (1897–1981) was a journalist, lawyer and novelist, among other activities, of Spanish nationality. The journalist was born José María Pemán y Pemartín in Cádiz and died in Cádiz.
José María Pemán was a member of Acción Española, Catholic Association of Propagandists and Comisión de Cultura y Enseñanza, among others and held the positions of Member of the Consultative National Assembly and Member of the Cortes republicanas, among others. The journalist worked in Madrid. Activity centred on journalism, literature and poetry.
The work spans dramaturgy. Languages used include Spanish. Honours include collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Dearest Son and Dearest Son of Cádiz province, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 28 September 2026
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wikidata · Q964355 · wikipedia · José María Pemán
In this article
Biography
Biography
The recorded working language is Spanish. The field of work recorded is literature, poetry and politics. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are dramaturgy. Places of work recorded in the authority are Madrid. Positions recorded include Member of the Consultative National Assembly and procurador en Cortes. Distinctions recorded are collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Mariano de Cavia' Price, Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III and Grand Cross of the Aeronautical Merit - White Decoration.

photo taken of the Tombstone commemorative Pemán House birthplace
Acisclo

Calle de Felipe IV nº 9, casa de José María Pemán en Madrid, España.
Nicolás Pérez · Enciclopedia Libre
Key facts
Key facts
• Honorific Prefix — The Most Excellent • Birth Name — José María Pemán y Pemartín • Born — 8 May 1897 • Birthplace — Cádiz, Spain • Died — 19 July 1981 • Place of death — Cádiz, Spain José María Pemán y Pemartín (8 May 1897 – 19 July 1981) was a Spanish journalist, poet, playwright, novelist, essayist and monarchist intellectual. He was a member of Francisco Franco's Falange movement.[1]
Biography
Biography
José María Pemán y Pemartín was born on 8 May 1897 in Cádiz. His father, Juan Gualberto Pemán was an important deputy of the Conservative Party for El Puerto de Santa María, and his mother, María Pemartín, came from a wealthy family from Jerez.[2] Originally a student of law, he received his doctorate on Plato from Madrid University. He had a brief spell as a criminal lawyer which he discontinued in 1924 following accusations of "a serious irregularity". He entered the literary world with a series of poetic works inspired by his native Andalusia (De la vida sencilla, A la rueda, rueda, El barrio de Santa Cruz, and Las flores del bien). In August 1927, Pemán was made a knight of the Orden de Montesa by King Alfonso XIII.[3] In the 1930s he became a journalist. He was elected to seat i of the Real Academia Española on 7 December 1939, taking it on 20 December. He was the director of the royal academy from 1939 to 1940 and 1944 to 1947.[4] Pemán often blurred literary genres, and developed a unique style that may be described as equidistant between classicism and modernism, not unfamiliar to readers of ABC and El Alcázar. As a dramatist, he wrote historical-religious verse (El divino impaciente and Cuando las Cortes de Cádiz y Cisneros), plays based on Andalusian themes (Noche de levante en calma), and comical costume dramas (Julieta y Romeo and El viento sobre la tierra). Pemán adapted many classical works (including Antigone, Hamlet, and Oedipus). He displayed his narrative skill in a series of novels and short stories (including Historia del fantasma y doña Juanita, Cuentos sin importancia, and La novela de San Martín). He was also a noted essayist. In 1955 he received the Mariano de Cavia prize for journalism. In 1957, he won the March de Literatura prize. He was the personal advisor to the Count of Barcelona from 1969 until the title's dissolution. In 1981, two months before his death, he was named Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece by King Juan Carlos.[5] Pemán was one of the few prominent intellectuals to support Francisco Franco and the Falangist movement. Franco named Pemán as head of commission on education, during which time Pemán purged 16,000 teachers, many of whom were sent to prison and hundreds of whom were ordered to be executed. This ensured his professional success during and after the Civil War, and also damaged his international reputation. Pemán wrote a set of unofficial, popular lyrics for the Marcha Real, which Franco had reinstated as Spain's national anthem in 1939 in its original form as a purely instrumental piece, despite some popular misapprehensions concerning the official status of Eduardo Marquina's lyrics. Despite never being published in the BOE (Official State Bulletin), Pemán's lyrics continued in use after Franco's death by a few who remained nostalgic for the Franco era during the period of the transition to a democracy. Across his life, Pemán wrote over 65 plays, 15 poetry books, 30 novels and political works, many press columns, and delivered hundreds of public speeches and lectures.
Pemán and antisemitism under Franco
Pemán and antisemitism under Franco
Pemán was a supporter of the Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevist Conspiracy (contubernio judeo-masonico-bolchevique), a conspiracy theory based on the antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Writing about Pemán's influence on the political culture and climate of Spain in the lead-up to the Civil War, historian Paul Preston said "His writings and speeches between the mid-1920s and the mid-1930s contributed massively to the breakdown of political coexistence that was the prelude to civil war. His virulent propaganda campaigns during the war encouraged and justified the savage repression unleashed by Francoist forces." In a 1937 radio address, Pemán evoked the purity of the blood, statutes of blood purity that were the legal discrimination mechanism used against Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians by the Spanish Inquisition, in which Pemán called the Spanish civil war a "magnificent struggle to bleed Spain."[6] Pemán's Poema de la bestia y el angel (1938), considered his most influential work, drew on the antisemitic Protocol of the Elders of Zion. In it, according to Isabella Rohr,[7] Pemán vilified Margarita Nelken, an art critic and Socialist deputy whose parents were Jewish immigrants, writing: Oh, cursed, cursed You, the Hebrew You, unmarried mother: Margarita! Name of a flower and spirit of a hyena.[8]
Selected filmography
Selected filmography
• Romeo and Juliet (1940) • Lola Montes (1944) • Madness for Love (1948) • The Duchess of Benameji (1949) • The Captain from Loyola (1949) • Congress in Seville (1955)
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
José María Pemán was recorded at birth as José María Pemán y Pemartín. His recorded language was Spanish. His recorded confession was Catholic Church. He was the child of Juan Gualberto Pemán y Maestre.
Career and activity
Career and activity
José María Pemán worked in literature, poetry, politics and journalism. Recorded positions include Member of the Consultative National Assembly, procurador en Cortes, Member of the Cortes republicanas and Member of the Royal Spanish Academy. He belonged to Royal Spanish Academy, Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation, Acción Española, Privy Council of the Count of Barcelona and Order of Montesa. He worked at Madrid.
Identity
Identity
José María Pemán is recorded as having received collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Mariano de Cavia' Price and Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III. José María Pemán is recorded as screenwriter, poet, journalist, writer and politician.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1897
José María Pemán born at Cádiz.
1981
José María Pemán died at Cádiz.
Recognition and collections
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
José María Pemán received collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Mariano de Cavia' Price, Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III, Grand Cross of the Aeronautical Merit - White Decoration, Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise and Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q964355: José María Pemán
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “José María Pemán”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- José María Pemán,poeta neopopularista, Revista Archivo Hispalense, 1996
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 1996
Literature
Literature
Literature
Callados como muertos (1952), de José María Pemán, y Murió hace quince años (1953), de José Antonio Giménez-Arnau, Un teatro anómalo, 2021
Scholarly footprint
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Kaufman, Dan. We've Got to Kill and Kill and Kill. The New York Review of Books. LXXII. 19. 23–25. December 4, 2025.
- 2.Preston, Paul (2023). Architects of Terror: Paranoia, Conspiracy, and Anti-Semitism in Franco's Spain. London, UK: William Collins. p. 100. .
- 3.Preston, Paul (2023). p. 102.
- 4.José María Pemán y Pemartín - letra i. Real Academia Española.
- 5.Preston, Paul (2023). p. 99.
- 6.Kaufman, Dan. "We've Got to Kill and Kill and Kill" Architects of Terror: Paranoia, Conspiracy and Anti-Semitism in Franco's Spain by Paul Preston. New York Review of Books. LXXII. 19. 23. December 4, 2025.
- 7.Rohr, Isabelle. The use of antisemitism in the Spanish Civil War. Patterns of Prejudice. 37. 2. 202. 2003.
- 8.Peman, Jose Maria. El poema de la bestia y del angel. Ediciones Jerarquia. 1938.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Verifiedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q964355: José María PemánWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,200 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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