Uslar Pietri, Arturo

Uslar Pietri, Arturo (ärt`rō s`lär pyā`trē), 1906–2001, Venezuelan novelist and essayist. Uslar Pietri is considered one of the most powerful regional writers in modern Spanish American letters. His masterpiece is the historical novel Las Lanzas coloradas (1931; tr. 1963, The Red Lances), a vivid depiction of the Venezuelan campaign of Simón Bolívar. Among his nearly 50 other works are Red (1936) and Treinta hombres y sus sombras (1949), short stories; El Camino de El Dorado (1947, repr. 1997), a fictionalized biography of Lope de Aguirre; and collections of essays such as Las visiones del camino (1945), Letras y hombres de Venezuela (1948), and Las Nubes (1956). Uslar Pietri also held offices in various Venezuelan governments and ran unsuccessfully for president in 1963.