Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

Biography

Pablo Neruda was born in 1904 as Born Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. He later changed his name to "Pablo Neruda" when he published his first book "Crepusculario" or "Twilight" to avoid conflict with his family, who disapproved of him writing poems and becoming a poet. Neruda didn't become well known until he published his second book, "20 Love Poem and a Song of Despair". Between 1927 and 1935, the government put him in charge of a number of honorary consulships, which took him to Burma, Ceylon, Java, Singapore, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, and Madrid. In 1939, Neruda was appointed consul for the Spanish emigration, residing in Paris, and, shortly afterwards, Consul General in Mexico, where he rewrote his Canto General de Chile, transforming it into an epic poem about the whole South American continent. In 1943, Neruda returned to Chile, and in 1945 he was elected senator of the Republic, also joining the Communist Party of Chile. After living in different European countries he returned home in 1952. A great deal of what he published during that period bears the stamp of his political activities; one example is Las Uvas y el Viento (1954), which can be regarded as the diary of Neruda's exile.
 

Pablo Neruda died on September 23, 1973.