A Reader's Guide to Fifty Modern European Poets

Born in the ducal palace in Seville; his father was an internationally famous scholar of folklore. Deeply influenced by the education he received at the Free Institute in Madrid from 1883 onwards. Produced a series of short satirical sketches and became fascinated by the world of the theatre. In 1899 went with his brother, also a poet, to Paris, where they worked as translators for a publishing house and made many literary contacts with writers of the Symbolist milieu. Returned to Paris in 1902 as Vice-Consul for Guatemala. Published his first collection of Solitudes in 1903 which was enthusiastically received and publicly acknowledged by Unamuno. In 1906 he took the necessary examinations to be able to teach French in Spanish secondary schools and was appointed to a post in Soria, north-east of Madrid in 1907, the year of the revised and expanded edition of Solitudes. There encountered the fourteen year-old Leonor whom he married two years later. During study leave in Paris in 1911 he heard Bergson lecture and discovered that his wife was suffering from advanced turberculosis. Profoundly and permanently affected by the loss of his wife in 1912. Moved to Baeza in a depressed condition. There began a systematic study of philosophy which culminated in 1918 with the award of a doctorate from the University of Madrid. Began teaching in Segovia in the autumn of 1919, and wrote mainly in prose thereafter, although he collaborated with his brother on a series of plays in the 1920s. In 1926 he met a married woman with whom he carried on an intimate and clandestine relationship and with whom he corresponded for some years. Elected to the Spanish Academy in 1927. Published Juan de Mairena, a quasi-philosophical investigation,

-108-