María Moliner

While a teenager her father left for Argentina and never came back, while Moliner, according to her son Fernando, lived with her mother, sister Matilde and brother Enrique in severe poverty.

She pursued her Bachillerato at the Instituto General y Técnico Cardenal Cisneros, and obtained a degree in History in 1921 from the University of Zaragoza.

In 1946, Moliner was put in charge of the library at the Superior Technical School of Industrial Engineers in Madrid, until her retirement in 1970.

In 1952 her son Fernando brought her a book from Paris that caught her attention, the Learner's Dictionary of Current English by A.S. Hornby (1948).

Moliner eventually signed a contract with them for the future publication of her dictionary, whose typographic edition was extremely laborious.

On 7 November 1972 the writer Daniel Sueiro interviewed María Moliner in the Heraldo de Aragón.

[6] In June 2013 Moliner's story was portrayed in a new play by Manuel Calzada Pérez, El Diccionario (The Dictionary) performed first in Madrid and subsequently brought to London as part of the Festival of Spanish Theatre in London (Festelón), with the actress Vicky Peña in the lead role, alongside Helio Pedregal and Lander Iglesias.

[7][8] On 30 March 2019, search engine Google commemorated María Moliner with a Doodle on her 119th birth anniversary.