IBANEZ, VICENTE BLASCO Spanish novelist and politician, was born at Valencia. He became an im passioned political agitator and suffered exile, hard labour and frequent imprisonment for his opinions, although he was returned to parliament on eight occasions by his native city. His early novels, such as Arroz y Tartana, La Barraca and Canas y Barro, deal with life in Valencia and are remarkable for their vivid de scriptions. Although a republican, Ibanez held strong anti-femi nist opinions. He travelled extensively and achieved world-wide success as a writer for the cinematograph. Among his best-known novels are La Catedral (1903 ; Eng. trans., The Shadow of the Cathedral, 1909) ; Sangre y Arena (1908 ; Eng. trans., Blood and Sand, 1913); Los cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis (1916; Eng. trans., The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1918) and Mare Nostrum (1918; Eng. trans., Our Sea, 192o). He was unpopular in Spain, where his writings were ignored by the majority, and he eventually settled in Paris, becoming the centre of a group of politicians with anti-monarchical views. A journey to America led to the production of such novels as Los Argonautas and La Tierra de Todos, but in these, as in other works, Ibanez failed to recapture the charm and realism of his regional novels.