34 Facts About Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende's novels are often based upon her personal experience and historical events and pay homage to the lives of women, while weaving together elements of myth and realism.

Isabel Allende has lectured and toured US colleges to teach literature.

Fluent in English, Isabel Allende was granted United States citizenship in 1993, having lived in California since 1989.

Isabel Allende's father Tomas was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973.

In 1945, after Tomas left them, Isabel Allende's mother relocated with her three children to Santiago, Chile, where they lived until 1953.

In 1953 Isabel Allende's mother married Ramon Huidobro and the family moved often.

In La Paz, Bolivia, Isabel Allende attended an American private school; and in Beirut, Lebanon, she attended an English private school.

The family returned to Chile in 1958, where Isabel Allende was briefly home-schooled.

In 1970, Salvador Isabel Allende appointed Huidobro as ambassador to Argentina.

In 1973, Salvador Isabel Allende was overthrown in a coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.

Isabel Allende found herself arranging safe passage for people on the "wanted lists", which she continued to do until her mother and stepfather narrowly escaped assassination.

Isabel Allende published two children's stories, "La Abuela Panchita" and "Lauchas y Lauchones", as well as a collection of articles, Civilice a Su Troglodita.

Isabel Allende worked in Chilean television production for channels 7 and 13 from 1970 to 1974.

Isabel Allende advised her to compile her satirical columns in book form.

Isabel Allende did so, and this became her first published book.

Isabel Allende was compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez as an author in the style known as magical realism.

Isabel Allende writes on a computer, working Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 19:00.

Isabel Allende's book Paula is a memoir of her childhood in Santiago and the years she spent in exile.

Isabel Allende spent months at Paula's bedside before learning that a hospital mishap had caused the brain damage.

Isabel Allende had Paula moved to a hospital in California where she died on 6 December 1992.

Isabel Allende's novels have been translated into more than 42 languages and sold more than 77 million copies.

Isabel Allende's 2008 book, The Sum of Our Days, is a memoir.

Literary critic Harold Bloom said that Isabel Allende only "reflects a determinate period, and that afterwards everybody will have forgotten her".

Isabel Allende told El Clarin that she recognizes she has not always received good reviews in Chile, stating that Chilean intellectuals "detest" her.

Isabel Allende presented the talk Tales of Passion at TED 2007.

In 2014, Isabel Allende received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Harvard University for her contributions to literature.

Isabel Allende has regularly defended the record of her father's cousin, Salvador Allende.

Isabel Allende had finished her secondary studies while living in Chile, when she met engineering student Miguel Frias whom she married in 1962.

In 1966, Isabel Allende again returned to Chile, where her son Nicolas was born that year.

Isabel Allende lived in Spain for two months, then returned to her marriage.

Isabel Allende is a very bad writer and only reflects a certain period.

Isabel Allende seems to me to be a bad writer, plain and simple, and to call her a writer is to give her court.

Isabel Allende makes a huge mistake, mistaking bestseller for literary quality.

Physically, Isabel Allende is not very prominent in the picture, but for many years she has had a great literary significance for readers all over the world.