Vicente Aleixandre

Vicente Aleixandre was born on April 26, 1898 in Seville, Spain. He was the son of a railway engineer and a pianist mother. He studied law at the University of Madrid and obtained his doctorate in 1920. He worked as a professor of commercial law at the School of Commerce and as a legal adviser for the Council of State. He also developed an interest in painting and poetry. He published his first poems in magazines and won a prize for his painting La primavera (Spring) in 1925. He became friends with other young poets, such as Federico García Lorca, Luis Cernuda and Rafael Alberti, who formed part of the Generation of '27, a group of avant-garde writers who were influenced by modernism and surrealism. He published his first book of poetry, Ámbito (Ambit), in 1928 and followed it with other acclaimed collections, such as La destrucción o el amor (Destruction or Love), Espadas como labios (Swords Like Lips), Sombra del paraíso (Shadow of Paradise), which showed his mastery of different styles and themes. He also wrote plays, such as Los encuentros (The Encounters), which reflected his social and political concerns. He was diagnosed with Bright's disease in 1932 and had to undergo several surgeries and treatments that affected his health for the rest of his life. He married none and had no children. He was an active supporter of the Second Spanish Republic and joined the Alliance of Antifascist Intellectuals in 1936. He held various cultural posts during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and collaborated with other artists and intellectuals in the defense of democracy against fascism. He went into exile in 1939 after Franco's victory and lived in various countries, such as France, Argentina, Chile and Italy. He continued writing poetry, such as Historia del corazón (History of the Heart), En un vasto dominio (In a Vast Dominion), Poemas de la consummación (Poems of Consummation), as well as memoirs, such as Los trabajos perdidos (The Lost Works). He also painted and drew extensively during his exile. He received several awards and honors for his literary work, such as the Lenin Peace Prize in 1954, the Cervantes Prize in 1977 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars" . He returned to Spain in 1976 after Franco's death and the restoration of democracy. He was welcomed by thousands of people who admired his poetry and his commitment to freedom. He died on December 14, 1984 in Madrid at the age of 86 . He is regarded as one of the most important and influential poets of Spanish literature in the 20th century. He is also remembered as a brilliant writer and orator who left a rich legacy of books, speeches and articles .