Pablo Neruda Biography and latest books by Pablo Neruda

Gabriel Garcia Marquez regarded Pablo Neruda as the ‘greatest poet of the 20th century in any language’. Born in 1904, Neruda was born as Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto and chose his pseudonym after Czech poet Jan Neruda. He was a poet, diplomat, and politician. He was born to José del Carmen Reyes Morale, a railway employee and Rosa Basoalto, a school teacher who died while Neruda was a baby. He lived in Temuco with his father where he remarried.

Neruda studied at the Universidad de Chile at Santiago. His father did not share his interest in literature and writing. However he received a lot of encouragement from people including renowned Nobel laureate and diplomat Gabriela Mistral. His first literary piece was an essay for the local newspaper La Manana titled Entusiasmo y perseverancia meaning Enthusiasm and Perseverance. He gained international acclaim as a poet; however due to mounting financial problems, he decided to join the diplomatic service.

Take up an honorary consulship in colonial Burma and then in former Sri Lanka, Java, and Singapore.  He met his first wife, Maryka Antonieta Hagenaar Vogelzang in Java and got married. It was during his diplomatic missions that he wrote Residencia En La Tierra which included several poems running on surrealistic themes.

Neruda was sent on diplomatic missions to Argentina and then to Spain. It was in Spain that he formed associations with writers such as Rafael Alberti, Federico García Lorca, and poet César Vallejo. He also began to have an affair with Delia del Carril, an Argentine. His wife and he divorced; she left with their daughter for Monte Carlo and he never saw them again.

Neruda began to move towards Communism and he was affected by the Spanish Civil War. He moved to Mexico City as Consul General. He became friends with Italian-born Stalinist Vittorio Vidali. During this time he also met Octavio Paz. The Spanish Civil War made him have an affinity towards Stalinist Russia; the admiration sprung from Germany’s defeat by Russia in the Second World War.  Later he favored Nikita Khrushchev. He was appointed as a Communist Party Senator and he joined the Communist Part of Chile.  He fled to Argentina and remained away from Chile for three years. He traveled to Europe where he addressed the World Congress of Peace Forces. He traveled across India, Sri Lanka, and Russia.

Neruda returned to Chile when the winds of change struck Chile with the weakening of the Gonzalez-Videla government. He died in 1973.