'La esfinge maragata' an autobiographic work, is probably one of the best-known books of the immense work of the writer Concha Espina (Santander, 1869-Madrid, 1955).

With it she won the Fastenrath Prize, the highest award at that time -1914- in Spanish literature, granted by the Real Academia Española (Spanish Royal Academy); the same institution that -according to the writer's biography on the website of the RAE- did not support her in one of her candidacies for the Nobel Prize, in which she was just one vote short of winning it.

She was so close to achieving it that she has been included in the traveling exhibition that recognizes the work of Nobel Women and that until mid-August 2019 can be visited in Madrid, at the Hospital 12 de Octubre. She did obtain, however, other recognitions, such as the National Prize for Literature in 1926 for “Altar Mayor” (that year it was also received by Wenceslao Fernández Flórez), the Gran Cruz de Alfonso X Award and the Gold Medal of Work Merit.  In 1938 she was named honorary member of the New York Academy of Arts and Letters and five years later, vice president of the Hispanic Society of America.

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