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COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
ALFRED A. KNOPF

Published October, 1917

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
[1]

INTRODUCTION

IN San Sebastián, a beautiful watering place on the northern coast ofGuipúzcoa, Spain, Don Pío Baroja y Nessi was born on the 28th day ofDecember, 1872. There, wandering among the foothills of the Pyrenees,listening to the talk of the hardy Basque peasants, playing on thebeautiful crescent of the playa, sailing about the pretty land-lockedharbour, he spent his childhood. In those early days he becamethoroughly conversant with the Basque tongue—that mysterious andimpossibly difficult language of whose true origin students are still indoubt.

His father was Don Serafín Baroja. Born in San Sebastián in 1840, DonSerafín was a well known mining engineer, and enjoyed no small amount offame as a writer. As far as literature is concerned, he is perhaps bestknown for his songs and ballads written in the Basque tongue. Hecomposed the libretto of the first Basque opera ever produced, the musicof which was by Santesteban. He is said to have been responsible for thelibretto of one other opera—a Spanish one.

His son, Don Pío, decided to take up the study of medicine, and he wentto Valencia for that purpose. He received his doctorate in 1893, when hewas but twenty-one years of age.

He practised his profession in Cestona, in the Province of Guipúzcoa.Life in that small, provincial town proved[2] very dull indeed, and hedecided that the medical profession was not his proper sphere. After twoyears in Cestona, he moved to Madrid. There he tried his hand at severalkinds of business. He even set up a bakery in partnership with hisbrother Ricardo, a painter and engraver of no mean ability! We do nothear of his return to the practice of medicine. Evidently he had provedto his own satisfaction that he was not suited to it.

After he had failed in several attempts at business, he began writing

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