Author of the classic novella El sombrero de tres picos (1944), a graceful, humorous picaresque story. Liberal and anti-clerical, Alarcón was the notorious chief editor of the periodical El Látigo (The Whip). Wrote numerous novels, short stories, poetry and drama, but remained famous for abovementioned novella and the novel El escándalo (1943). Manuel de Falla made El Sombrero... into a famous ballet.
