Biography

Allende was born Isabel Allende Llona in Lima, Peru, the daughter of Francisca Llona
Barros and Toms Allende, who was at the time the Chilean ambassador to Peru. Her
father was a first cousin of Salador Allende, President of Chile from !"#$ to !"#%& thus
the former head of state is her first cousin once remoed.
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+an, sources cite Allende
as being Salador Allende-s niece .without s/ecif,ing that the relationshi/ is that Tomas
and Salador are cousins0&
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the confusion stems from Allende herself often referring to
Salador as her 1-uncle1 .to0 in her /riate life and /ublic interiews.
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This is because
in S/anish a 1first cousin once remoed1 is translated as 1second degree uncle1 .to en
segundo grado0.
2sabel Allende at the +iami Boo3 Fair 2nternational in !""$
2n !"45, after Toms had disa//eared,
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2sabel-s mother relocated with her three children
to Santiago, Chile, where the, lied until !"5%.
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Between !"5% and !"5*, Allende-s
mother married 7am8n Huidobro and moed often. Huidobro was a di/lomat a//ointed
to Boliia and Beirut. 2n Boliia, Allende attended an American /riate school& and in
Beirut, Lebanon she attended an 9nglish /riate school. The famil, returned to Chile in
!"5*. Allende was also briefl, home:schooled. 2n her ,outh, she read widel,, /articularl,
the wor3s of ;illiam Sha3es/eare.
2n !"#$, Salador Allende a//ointed Huidobro as ambassador to Argentina.
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;hile liing in Chile, Allende finished her secondar, studies and met engineering
student +iguel Fr<as whom she married in !"(6.
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7e/ortedl,, 1Allende married earl,,
into an Anglo/hile famil, and a 3ind of double life= at home she was the obedient wife
and mother of two& in /ublic she became, after a s/ell translating Barbara Cartland, a
moderatel, well:3nown T> /ersonalit,, a dramatist and a ?ournalist on a feminist
maga@ine.1
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From !"5" to !"(5, Allende wor3ed with the Anited Bations- Food and Agriculture
Crgani@ation in Santiago, Chile, then in Brussels, Belgium, and elsewhere in 9uro/e. For
a brief while in Chile, she also had a ?ob translating romance noels from 9nglish to
S/anish.
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Howeer, she was fired for ma3ing unauthori@ed changes to the dialogue of
the heroines to ma3e them sound more intelligent as well as altering the Cinderella
endings to let the heroines find more inde/endence and do good in the world.
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Allende and Fr<as- daughter Paula was born in !"(%. 2n !"((, Allende again returned to
Chile and her son Bicols was born there that ,ear.
7e/ortedl,, 1the C2A:bac3ed militar, cou/ in Se/tember !"#% .that brought Augusto
Pinochet to /ower0 changed eer,thing1 for Allende because 1her name meant she was
caught u/ in finding safe /assage for those on the wanted lists1 .hel/ing until her mother
and ste/father, a di/lomat in Argentina, narrowl, esca/ed assassination0. ;hen she
herself was added to the list and began receiing death threats, she fled to >ene@uela,
where she sta,ed for !% ,ears.
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2n >ene@uela she was a columnist for El Nacional, a
main news/a/er. 2n !"#*, she began a tem/orar, se/aration from +iguel Fr<as. She lied
in S/ain for two months, then returned to her marriage.
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Current life
During a isit to California in !"**, Allende met her second husband, attorne, ;illie
Eordon. 2n !""4, she was awarded the Eabriela +istral Crder of +erit, the first woman
to receie this honor. Allende currentl, lies in San 7afael, California. +ost of her
famil, lies near her, with her son liing 1with his second wife and her grandchildren ?ust
down the hill& her son and his famil, lie in the house she and her second husband, San
Francisco law,er and noelist ;illiam Eordon, acated.1
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2n 6$$(, she was one of the eight flag bearers at the C/ening Ceremon, of the ;inter
Cl,m/ics in Turin, 2tal,.
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2n 6$$*, Allende receied the honorar, degree Doctor of
Humane Letters from San Francisco State Aniersit, for her 1distinguished contributions
as a literar, artist and humanitarian.1
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2n 6$!4, Allende receied the honorar, degree of
Doctor of Letters from Harard Aniersit, for her contributions to literature.
Foundation
Allende started the Isabel Allende Foundation on " December !""( to /a, homage to her
daughter, Paula Fr<as Allende who eF/erienced a coma after com/lications of the disease
/or/h,ria led to her hos/itali@ation.
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Paula was 6* ,ears old when she died in !""6.
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The foundation is 1dedicated to su//orting /rograms that /romote and /resere the
fundamental rights of women and children to be em/owered and /rotected.1
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Literary career
2sabel Allende .in red, %rd L to 70, 6$$#, at T9D in California, flan3ed .L to 70 b, Susan
Cohen, La3shmi Pratur, and Trac, Cha/man.
Beginning in !"(#, Allende was on the editorial staff for Paula maga@ine, and from !"("
to !"#4 for the children-s maga@ine Mampato, where she later was the editor.
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She
/ublished two children-s stories, La Abuela Panchita .Grandmother Panchita0 and
Lauchas y Lauchones, as well as a collection of articles, Civilice a u !roglodita. She
also wor3ed in Chilean teleision /roduction for channels # .humorous /rograms0 and !%
from !"#$ to !"#4.
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As a ?ournalist, she once sought an interiew with Pablo Beruda, a
notable Chilean /oet. ;hile Beruda acce/ted the interiew, he told her that she had too
much imagination to be a ?ournalist and should be a noelist instead.
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He also adised
her to com/ile her satirical columns in boo3 form.
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She did so, and this became her first
/ublished boo3. 2n !"#%, Allende-s /la, El Emba"ador /la,ed in Santiago, a few months
before she was forced to flee the countr, due to the cou/.
2n Allende-s time in >ene@uela, she was a freelance ?ournalist for El Nacional in Caracas
from !"#( to !"*% and an administrator of the +arrocco School in Caracas from !"#" to
!"*%.
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;hen Allende, in Caracas in !"*!, receied a /hone call that her "":,ear:old grandfather
was near death, she sat down to write him a letter and thereb, 13ee/ him alie, at least in
s/irit.1 She started writing him a letter that later eoled into a boo3 manuscri/t, !he
#ouse o$ the pirits .!"*60& the intent of this wor3 was to eForcise the ghosts of the
Pinochet dictatorshi/. The boo3 was re?ected b, numerous Latin American /ublishers,
but finall, the noel was /ublished in S/ain. The boo3 soon ran into more than two
do@en editions in S/anish, and was translated into a score of languages. The boo3 was a
great success& Allende was com/ared to Eabriel Earc<a +rGue@ as an author of the st,le
3nown as magical realism.
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Allende-s boo3s hae since become 3nown for their iid stor,telling. Although Allende
is often considered to use the literar, st,le of magical realism, her wor3s often dis/la,
elements of /ost:Boom literature, and as such her st,le cannot be described as /urel,
adhering to magical realism. Allende also holds to a er, methodical literar, routine.
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She writes using a com/uter, wor3ing +onda, through Saturda,, "=$$ A.+. to #=$$ P.+.
12 alwa,s start on * Hanuar,1, Allende stated& 1a tradition she began in !"*! with a letter
she wrote to her d,ing grandfather that would become the groundwor3 for her first noel,
!he #ouse o$ the pirits%1
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Allende-s boo3 Paula .!""50 is a memoir of her childhood in Santiago, Chile and the
following ,ears she s/ent in eFile. 2t is written as an anguished letter to her daughter, who
suffered from /or/h,riaIa metabolic disorder that is rarel, fatal. 2n !""!, an error in
medication resulted in seere brain damage and left Paula in a /ersistent egetatie state.
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But months /assed at Paula-s bedside before Allende learned that a hos/ital misha/
had caused irreersible brain damage. Allende had her moed to a hos/ital in California
where she died on ( December !""6. The boo3, as much a celebration of Allende-s
turbulent life as the chronicle of Paula-s death, is a best seller in the Anited States, Latin
America and 9uro/e.
Allende-s noels hae been translated from S/anish into oer %$ languages and sold more
than 5( million co/ies.
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There are three moies based on her noels currentl, in
/roduction I Aphrodite, Eva Luna and Gi$t $or a &eetheart.
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Her 6$$* boo3, !he
um o$ 'ur (ays is a memoir. 2t focuses on her recent life with her immediate famil,,
which includes her grown son, Bicols& second husband, ;illiam Eordon& and seeral
grandchildren.
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A noel set in Bew Crleans was /ublished in 6$!$, Island )eneath the
ea. 2n 6$!! came El Cuaderno de Maya .1+a,a-s Boteboo310, a noel in which the
setting alternates between Ber3ele,, California, and ChiloJ in Chile.
Literary criticism
Allende has won numerous awards in Chile and around the world, .see below0, and
recentl, was called a 1literar, legend1 b, Latino Leaders Maga*ine, which in its 6$$#
article named Allende as the third most influential Latino leader in the world.
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Des/ite commercial success, her literature has drawn some negatie criticism. 2n her
noel 1Ko:Ko Boing1, Eiannina Braschi declared that 12sabel Allende is 3illing Earc<a
+rGue@ a little more each da, the same wa, +ichael Hac3son-s sisters are 3illing
+ichael Hac3son.1
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2n an article /ublished in Entre par+ntesis, 7oberto BolaLo called
Allende-s literature anemic, com/ared it to 1a /erson on his deathbed1, and later called
her 1a writing machine, not a writer1.
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Literar, critic Harold Bloom adds his o/inion
that Allende onl, 1reflects a determinate /eriod, and that afterwards eer,bod, will hae
forgotten her1.
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Boelist Eon@alo Contreras sa,s that 1she commits a grae error, to
confuse commercial success with literar, Gualit,1.
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Allende said to 9l Clar<n that she recogni@es that she has not alwa,s receied good
criticism in Chile, stating that Chilean intellectuals 1detest1 her. Howeer, she disagrees
with these assessments, and has been Guoted sa,ing=
The fact /eo/le thin3 that when ,ou sell a lot of boo3s ,ou are not a serious writer is a
great insult to the readershi/. 2 get a little angr, when /eo/le tr, to sa, such a thing.
There was a reiew of m, last boo3 in one American /a/er b, a /rofessor of Latin
American studies and he attac3ed me /ersonall, for the sole reason that 2 sold a lot of
boo3s. That is unforgiable.
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Amongst her more /ositie reiews, it has been said
'by &hom,)
1Allende-s im/act on Latin
American and world literature cannot be oerestimated.1
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The Los Angeles !imes has
called Allende 1a genius,1
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and she has receied man, international awards, including
the /restigious Doroth, and Lillian Eish Pri@e,
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granted to writers "who have
contributed to the beauty of the world."
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