Valencian most famous son was writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, best known for his novel about bullfighting, Blood and Sand, and for his World War I novel, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Both were filmed twice in Hollywood, with Rudolph Valentino starring in the first version of each. His life, it can be said, tells a more interesting story than his novels. He was a militant Republican partisan in his youth and founded a newspaper, El Pueblo.
The newspaper aroused so much controversy that it was brought to court many times and censored. He made many enemies and was shot and almost killed in one dispute. The bullet was caught in the clasp of his belt. He had several stormy love affairs.