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Miguel Delibes (undated photo)
"We must remember him as a good person and a great writer," Education Minister Angel Gabilondo told the radio station, adding the author had a "passion" for writing.
Delibes was operated on for colon cancer in 1998 shortly after he published his last novel "El Hereje" ("The Heretic"), an international bestseller that follows the life of a boy born on the day the Protestant reformation began.
"I am forgetting what I wrote. The same day that I submitted 'The Heretic' to publishers I was diagnosed with colon cancer. Since then the only thing I have dealt with has been my health," the online edition of daily newspaper El Mundo quoted him as saying at the time.
A prolific writer who published about 70 books including novels, short stories and collections of articles, essays and travel chronicles, he received Spain's highest honour for literature, the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, in 1993.
His works often depicted the harsh realities of rural life and his early journalism work was censored because of this by the right-wing dictatorship of General Francsico Franco.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Delibes had been "the austere voice of a country plunged into silence" in a telegram sent to the author's family.
One of his most popular works is "Cinco Horas con Mario" (Five Hours with Mario), published in 1966, in which a widow watches over the body of her husband in a provincial town and recalls their life together.
Another popular novel, "Los Santos Inocentes" ("The Innocent Saints"), published in 1981, depicts the extreme poverty and feudal conditions experienced by peasants living under a wealthy landowner in Spain.
The novel was one of about a dozen which he wrote which have been adapted for cinema.
Late Spanish actor Francisco Rabal won the award for best actor at the Cannes film festival in 1984 for his portrayal of the main character in the movie version of "The Innocent Saints" by Spanish director Mario Camus.
Throughout his life Delibes defended nature and the simple values of rural life as well as individual liberties during Franco's 1939-75 dictatorship.
Born into a bourgeois family, his father was a university professor and his grandfather was a nephew of the French composer Leo Delibes.
He studied law and commerce and worked in banking before becoming a journalist at a regional daily newspaper, El Norte de Castilla.
Delibes became the paper's director in 1958 but resigned from the post five years later after he became a victim of censorship for exposing the harsh conditions of life and work of rural peasants.
He loved hunting and fishing, passions reflected in his work, especially in "The Diary of a Hunter".
Delibes is survived by his wife and seven children.
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Delibes was operated on for colon cancer in 1998 shortly after he published his last novel "El Hereje" ("The Heretic"), an international bestseller that follows the life of a boy born on the day the Protestant reformation began.
"I am forgetting what I wrote. The same day that I submitted 'The Heretic' to publishers I was diagnosed with colon cancer. Since then the only thing I have dealt with has been my health," the online edition of daily newspaper El Mundo quoted him as saying at the time.
A prolific writer who published about 70 books including novels, short stories and collections of articles, essays and travel chronicles, he received Spain's highest honour for literature, the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, in 1993.
His works often depicted the harsh realities of rural life and his early journalism work was censored because of this by the right-wing dictatorship of General Francsico Franco.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Delibes had been "the austere voice of a country plunged into silence" in a telegram sent to the author's family.
One of his most popular works is "Cinco Horas con Mario" (Five Hours with Mario), published in 1966, in which a widow watches over the body of her husband in a provincial town and recalls their life together.
Another popular novel, "Los Santos Inocentes" ("The Innocent Saints"), published in 1981, depicts the extreme poverty and feudal conditions experienced by peasants living under a wealthy landowner in Spain.
The novel was one of about a dozen which he wrote which have been adapted for cinema.
Late Spanish actor Francisco Rabal won the award for best actor at the Cannes film festival in 1984 for his portrayal of the main character in the movie version of "The Innocent Saints" by Spanish director Mario Camus.
Throughout his life Delibes defended nature and the simple values of rural life as well as individual liberties during Franco's 1939-75 dictatorship.
Born into a bourgeois family, his father was a university professor and his grandfather was a nephew of the French composer Leo Delibes.
He studied law and commerce and worked in banking before becoming a journalist at a regional daily newspaper, El Norte de Castilla.
Delibes became the paper's director in 1958 but resigned from the post five years later after he became a victim of censorship for exposing the harsh conditions of life and work of rural peasants.
He loved hunting and fishing, passions reflected in his work, especially in "The Diary of a Hunter".
Delibes is survived by his wife and seven children.
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