BN Santos' Life and Works

Bienvenido N. Santos

Life and Works

Prepared by: Joalex Nillo, BSE - English

Bienvenido N. Santos

Born: March 22, 1911 in Tondo, Manila

Died: January 7, 1996

Nationality: Filipino

Period: 20th century

Genres: Fiction, Poetry

Bienvenido N. Santos (1911–1996)

◦a Filipino-American fiction, poetry and nonfiction writer.

◦He was born and raised in Tondo, Manila.

◦His family roots are originally from Lubao, Pampanga, Philippines.

Biography

In his early attempts at creative writing, Santos developed an ear for three kinds of communication: ◦ Pampango in the songs his mother sang at home;◦ English in the poems and stories his teacher read at

school; and◦ Tagalog in the street life of the Tondo slums.

He lived in the United States for many years where he is widely credited as a pioneering Asian-American writer.

Biography

He was born a menopausal baby.

Dr. Santos, at 83:◦has authored 14 books;◦has won numerous prestigious literary awards;◦is widely anthologized and is required reading

in schools – both in the Philippines and in numbers of the United States.

Biography

Before he graduated from high school, at 16 years old, he was already an orphan.◦ His mother, Vicenta, who doted on him, died of

cancer when he was 13. His father, after whom he named his only son Tomas, died of tuberculosis when he was 15

Although the thought of being a writer first came to him after he published his first stories in two national magazines and after he had already published some poems, it was teaching that occupied his time and effort.

Biography

It was in teaching where he met his future wife, Beatriz Nidea, and won her hand in Marriage despite a sputtering star when he bungled the first line he threw at her due to nervousness.

They made their home in Daraga, Albay, in the home province of his wife.

There, on the combined income as public school teachers, they raised three daughters: Arme, Lina, and Lily. Tom came much later.

Biography

Santos was also a distinguished academic. Since, 1932, when he earned his Bachelor in Science degree in Education, major in English, at the University of the Philippines, he had been teaching at various institutions such as:◦Ohio State University of Iowa◦Ateneo de Manila University◦Metropolitan State College◦Parkland College◦Wichita State University

Biography

Santos left for America in September 1941 as a pensionado (scholar) of the Philippine Commonwealth government.

Thirty years old and an established short story writer in English at home, he enrolled at the University of Illinois in the master's program in English.

Biography

When war broke out in December, he found himself an exile in America, cut off from his homeland and his wife and three daughters he left behind. The heartbreak of this separation during his first sojourn in America is crucial to Santos's development as a writer. 

Exile defined the central theme of his fiction from then on. 

Biography

After earning a Master of Arts degree in English at University of Illinois in 1942, and doing a postgraduate work in English at Columbia University in 1942, and at Harvard University in 1945-46, he served as President of Legaspi College (now Aquinas University).

Creative writing fellowships awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation Guggenheim Foundation, and Iowa Industries brought him back to the United States.

Biography

After three years as fellow in the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he came home in 1961 and was appointed Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dean of the Graduate School, and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Nueva Caceres.

He returned to America in 1966 as Fulbright Exchange Professor at the University of Iowa.

Biography

Santos received an honorary doctorate degrees in humanities and letters from the University of the Philippines, and Bicol University (Legazpi City, Albay) in 1981.

He was also a Professor of Creative Writing and Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Wichita State University from 1973 to 1982, at which time the university awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in humane letters. After his retirement, Santos became Visiting Writer and Artist at De La Salle University in Manila; the university honored Santos by renaming its creative writing center after him.

Biography

Bienvenido Santos was one of the privileged few to whom success has been very kind. He has spent most of his lifetime in writing the different literary genres and in teaching his craft to would-be writers.

The recognition he has received has been much more compared to that of any others Filipino writer during his time.

Biography

Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at the University of Iowa

Guggenheim Fellowship

Republic Cultural Heritage Award

Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for short fiction (1956, 1961 and 1965)

Fulbright Program Exchange Professorship

Awards, honors and prizes

American Book Award from Before Columbus Foundation

Honorary Doctorate in Humanities and Letters, University of the Philippines

Honorary Doctorate in Humanities and Letters, Bicol University (Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines)

Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, Wichita State University (Kansas, U.S.A.)

Awards, honors and prizes

Novels

The Volcano (1965)

Villa Magdalena (1965)

The Praying Man (1982)

The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert Taylor (1983)

What the Hell for You Left Your Heart in San Francisco? (1987)

Works

Short story collections

You Lovely People (1955)

Brother, My Brother (1960)

The Day the Dancers Came (1967, 1991)

Scent of Apples (1979)

Dwell in the Wilderness (1985)

Works

Poetry

The Wounded Stag (1956,1992)

Distances: In Time (1983)

"March of Death"

Works

Nonfiction

Memory's Fictions: A Personal History (1993)

Postscript to a Saintly Life (1994)

Selected Letters: Book 1 (1995)

Selected Letters: Book 2 (1996)

Works

His novels, Villa Magdalena (1965), The Volcano (1965), The Praying Man (1982), The Man who (Thought He) Looked like Robert Taylor (1983), and What the Hell for You Left Your Heart in San Francisco (1987), define what it means to be a Filipino in the twentieth century.

Works

His short story collections, You Lovely People (1955), Brother, My Brother (1960), The Day the Dancers Came (1967, 1991), Scent of Apples (1979), Dwell in the Wilderness (1985), portray the lives of simple, familiar, often lonely Filipinos faced with ordinary conflicts that demand extra ordinary heroism.

Works

His poetry collections, The Wounded Stag (1956,1992), and Distances: In Time (1983) display the same sensitivity to language and the depth of insight that give power to his prose.

Works

His works have been translated into several languages such as:

ChineseFrenchGermanMalayRussian

Moreover, he is included in all the major anthologies of the Philippine writing published both in the Philippines and in other countries.

Works

Santos's stories can be grouped into three literary periods. ◦The first period, the prewar years in the

Philippines (1930-1940) are set in the fictive Sulucan slums of his Tondo childhood and the rural towns and villages in the foothills of Mayon volcano in Albay, where Santos married Beatriz Nidea, started his family, and built his house. These stories are in the collections Brother, My Brother and Dwell in the Wilderness.

Works

Santos's stories can be grouped into three literary periods. ◦Santos's exile in America during the war years

produced stories set in Chicago, Washington, New York, and other cities, where he lectured extensively for the Philippine Commonwealth government in exile. You, Lovely People, The Day the Dancers Came, and Scent of Apples belong to this period.

Works

Santos's stories can be grouped into three literary periods. ◦In the postwar years Santos set his stories in

different places as he commuted between the Philippines and America. These years mark a period of maturation and experimentation, and a shifting away from the short story to the novel form.

Works

THE END

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THANK YOU! GOD BLESS!