Corín Tellado

María del Socorro Tellado López (25 April 1927 in El Franco, Asturias, Spain – 11 April 2009), known as Corín Tellado, was a prolific Spanish writer of romantic novels and photonovels that were best-sellers in several Spanish-language countries. She published more than 4,000 titles and sold more than 400 million books which have been translated into several languages. She was listed in the 1994 Guinness World Records as having sold the most books written in Spanish, and earlier in 1962 UNESCO declared her the most read Spanish writer after Miguel de Cervantes.

Her novels were different from other contemporary Western European romantic writers' works because she usually set them in the present and didn't use eroticism, due to the Spanish regime's strict censorship. Her style was direct and her characters were simply presented. These novels have inspired several telenovelas. María del Socorro Tellado López was born in the small village of Viavélez, and she was the only girl of five siblings. Her mother was a housewife and her father was a naval mechanic in the Merchant Navy.

In 1939, after the Spanish Civil War, her father was promoted to First Officer and the whole family moved to Cádiz. Her love for literature began when she attended a catholic school which was run by nuns.

Her father died in 1945 and the family started to have economic problems; she sold her first novel, Atrevida apuesta, to the publishing house Editorial Bruguera in 1946 for 3,000 pesetas, but they rejected her second novel. She continued to write for and to be published by Editorial Cies and Editorial Bruguera; she also started to study psychology, but did not finish her studies because Editorial Bruguera contracted her to write one short novel every week. In 1948 she went back to Asturias with her mother, where she started publishing a different short novella every two weeks in Latin American magazine Vanidades. She claimed that she was able to write a short novel in two days.

She married Domingo Egusquizaga Sangroniz in 1959 in Covadonga and one year later she gave birth to her first child, her daughter Begoña Egusquizaga Tellado; in 1961 she gave birth to her second child, her son Domingo Egusquizaga Tellado. In 1962, the couple separated, but never divorced.

In 1962 UNESCO declared her the most read Spanish writer after Miguel de Cervantes, and Editorial Bruguera offered her an exclusive contract to write. She would later have problems with Editorial Bruguera, because they republished some of her novels under a different title without her permission. She started to write for Editorial Rollán, but in 1973 Editorial Bruguera filed a lawsuit against her and won, and she had to pay them compensation, in addition to returning to work for them. Her last works for Editorial Buguera were erotic novels under the pen name of Ada Leswy or Ada Miller Leswy.

She also published some children's books in collaboration with Jesús Zantón Santiago, and her favorite novel was Lucha oculta (1991), her first long work.

Corín Tellado was listed in the 1994 Guinness World Records as having sold the most books written in Spanish.

She died on 11 April 2009 in her home as a result of a stroke. She left three unpublished novels. Her novels continue to be reedited in digital format.