Fórmica Corsi, Mercedes

b. 1918, Cadiz

   Writer

   Unusual in being lawyer, journalist, feminist and novelist, Fórmica began as a member of the ultraconservative Falange before the Civil War but eventually campaigned for legal and professional equality for women. Her 1950 novel, Monte de Sancha (Sancha's Mountain), is considered the first post-war Spanish view of the civil conflict to present both sides. La ciudad perdida (The Lost City) (1951), set in the 1950s, sympathetically portrays an anti-Franco guerrilla. A instancia, de parte (Upon Petition of the Third Party) (1955), her most pro-feminist novel indicts machismo, while the two memoir volumes, Pequeña historia de ayer (Brief History of Yesterday) (1982, 1984) are gems.

   Further reading

   - Pérez, J. (1988) Contemporary Women Writers of Spain, Boston, MA: G.K.Hall, pp. 102–4 (overview of the novels and memoirs).

   JANET PÉREZ