Manuel Chaves Nogales (Seville, 1897-London, 1944) was a key figure in Spanish journalism and literature in the first half of the 20th century, but for decades his legacy remained forgotten.

"Franco's dictatorship, academic conservatism, and teaching stagnation hid his work with a heavy load of contempt and oblivion," believes the historian Francisco Cánovas Sánchez, one of the "Chavistas" who since the 1990s have recovered the figure of a writer who toured Spain and the world trying to provide a liberal and moderate vision in times of extremism.

Francisco Cánovas Sánchez now publishes in Alianza Editorial the biography 'Manuel Chaves Nogales. Barbarie y civilización en el siglo XX.'

Raised in a family linked to culture, Chaves Nogales began his journalistic career in his native Seville at the age of 17 and in 1919 moved to Córdoba to work for La Voz, a newspaper in this city. But he soon made the leap to the Heraldo de Madrid and already in the capital showed his talent for forging a "new, discreet and civilized" journalism, aimed at "promoting awareness in the Spaniards and arousing in them an interest in major contemporary events." says Canovas.

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