Spanish Authors

This Spanish poet and dramatist, was born in Fuente Vaqueros, in Granada. Considered Spain's greatest modern poet and playwright, his work reached readers around the world. Beginning to write poetry as an adolescent and putting on recitals in local cafes, he later left for Madrid to study law. That was when he came into contact with other important artistic figures of his generation, such as painter Salvador Dalí.

His first play Mariana Pineda opened in 1927, putting him in the public eye and a year later his first collection of poems was published in a book called Romancero gitano (Madrid, 1928; tr. R. Humphries, The Gypsy Ballads of García Lorca). He traveled abroad to England, Cuba and the US, where he spent 9 months in New York. Some of his most famous poetic productions include the poems collected in the volume entitled Poet in New York, Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias (Madrid, 1935; tr. A. L. Lloyd, in Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter.) As a playwright, his masterpieces include Bodas de sangre (Madrid, 1935; Blood Wedding ), Yerma (Buenos Aires, 1937) and La casa de Bernarda Alba (Buenos Aires, 1940; The House of Bernarda Alba).

Despite the fact that Lorca was not involved in politics, his friendship to left-wing intellectuals provided enough grounds for him to be arrested. His execution by a Nationalist death squad made him famous outside of Spain and to this day his grave remains unmarked.