Luis Coloma

Luis Coloma Roldán (1851–1915) was a Spanish writer, journalist and Jesuit. He is most known for creating the character of El Ratoncito Pérez. Coloma was a prolific writer of short stories and his complete works, which includes his novels, biographies, and other works, have since been collected in a multi-volume set. He studied at the University of Seville, where he graduated with a master's degree in law, although he never got to practice law. In 1908 Coloma became a member of the Royal Spanish Academy occupying seat "f".

Career

Coloma was born in 1851 in Jerez de la Frontera.

In 1880 Coloma began work on Pequeñeces on behalf of the Society of Jesus. The work is a political satire of the high Madrid society in the years previous to the Bourbon Restoration, and is considered to be one of his more well known works. This work has received much criticism, as some felt that it was overly pessimistic and "too narrowly bigoted in tone to have any lasting vogue".

In 1894, Queen Maria Christina commissioned Coloma to write a tale for King Alfonso XIII, who had just lost a tooth at the age of eight. Coloma's tale follows Ratón Pérez who lived with his family in a box of cookies at the basement of Prast confectionery store in Madrid, but frequently ran away from home through the pipes of the city, and into the bedrooms of children who had lost their teeth. The story details how he cunningly misleads any cats in the vicinity who may be lurking, and includes his interaction with King Buby (Queen Maria Christina's nickname for Alfonso XIII). The tale was first published in 1902 together with other stories in Nuevas lecturas. In 1911, Ratón Pérez was published for the first time as an independent story and was illustrated by . Coloma's original manuscript, with his signature and a dedication to King Alfonso XIII, is now kept in the vault of the Royal Library at the Royal Palace of Madrid.

Coloma promoted literature but was critical of novels in general, as he felt that they gave an overly idealized portrayal of human life and sentimentalized religion. Cuentos para niños (1890) in El Mensajero del Corazón de Jesús Retratos de antaño (1895) Boy (1895–96) La reina mártir (1898), biography of Mary Stuart Jeromín (1902), novel about the life of Juan de Austria El marqués de Mora (1903) Recuerdos de Fernán Caballero (1910) Fray Francisco (1911), biography of Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros