Uslar Pietri, Arturo

Uslar Pietri, Arturo ärto͞o´rō o͞os´lär pyā´trē [key], 1906–2001, Venezuelan novelist and essayist. Uslar Pietri is considered one of the most powerful regional writers in modern Spanish American letters. His masterpiece is the historical novel Las Lanzas coloradas (1931 tr. 1963, The Red Lances ), a vivid depiction of the Venezuelan campaign of Simón Bolívar. Among his nearly 50 other works are Red (1936) and Treinta hombres y sus sombras (1949), short stories El Camino de El Dorado (1947, repr. 1997), a fictionalized biography of Lope de Aguirre and collections of essays such as Las visiones del camino (1945), Letras y hombres de Venezuela (1948), and Las Nubes (1956). Uslar Pietri also held offices in various Venezuelan governments and ran unsuccessfully for president in 1963.

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