Clemente Palma

He was the son of famous Peruvian author and scholar Ricardo Palma and Ecuadorian Clemencia Ramínez.

In 1897 he obtained a degree in Letters from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, with a thesis entitled El Porvenir de las Razas en el Perú ("The Future of the Races in Peru") in which he defended the controversial thesis that the Peruvian race had to be improved and that this could be achieved through the introduction of Germans into Peru.

During this period, he founded several cultural and literary magazines such as Prisma and Variedades and the daily newspaper La Crónica.

Between 1919 and 1930, Clemente Palma was a Member of Parliament, supporting the authoritarian President Augusto B. Leguia, who had taken power through a coup.

During this period, he remained active in the press and also taught classes of aesthetics and art history at his alma mater.

He made a great contribution to the development of the short story and science fiction in Peru and introduced new themes in its literature.

The Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) re-edited the entire narrative work of Clemente Palma, including the novel "XYZ", in 2006.