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Pablo Neruda

By Andrew, Ashleigh, and Sam

+Early Life

Born in Chile on July 12, 1904

Birth name was Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto

Father was a Railway worker and his Mom a school teacher, although she died when he was two months old

Wrote his first poem in 1914

+Early Life Cont. Father didn’t want him to write at first, but many others, including a

Nobel Prize winner encouraged him

Published his first work in 1917, an essay Enthusiasm and Perseverance

For two more years he published essays and poems in magazines under his birth name

In mid 1920, he adopted his pen name, Pablo Neruda

+Early Career

When he was 16 in 1921 he went to the University of Chile

In 1923 his first volume of verse poems called Book of Twilights was published

In 1924 he published 20 love poems and a song of despair

Two years later he published The Trying of Infinite Man

Also in 1926, his novel, The Inhabitant in His Hope was published

+Early Career Cont. In 1927 he took an honorary consulship in Rangoon, part of

Burma

When he returned to Chile he was given diplomatic posts in Buenas Aires and Barcelona

His daughter was born in 1934

Neruda became intensely political as the Spanish Civil War started, and became a communist

In 1938 he wrote Spain in the Heart

+Politics

Because of becoming a communist, he lost his political post as consul

In 1938 he had the responsibility of shipping 2000 Spanish refugees to Chile

From 1940-1943 he was Consul-General in Mexico City

In 1943 he returned to Chile

He wrote the Canto General in 1945

He came to admire Joseph Stalin and the USSR

In 1948 he went into hiding

He fled over the Andes Mts. to Argentine on horseback

+Politics Con. In 1953 he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize

Also in 1953 he returned to Chile

In 1970 he was nominated for Chilean Presidency

He won the the Noble Prize in 1971

Awarded the Golden Wreath award in 1972

He dies on September 23, 1973

In 1974 his memoirs are published under the title I Confess I Have Lived

+Literary Work Neruda was a strong supporter of communism, which

was reflected in his writing by wanting the Spanish to leave his homeland of Chile and leave them alone

He was also very proud of Chile, his home country, which he wrote about a lot

He was pretty compassionate, which was also reflected in his writing

+Works Cited

"Pablo Neruda." Wikipedia. N.p., 2 Mar. 2012. Web. 2 Mar. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Neruda>.