Editing Luis Cernuda (section)

==Biography==

===Seville and early life===
Cernuda was born in the Barrio Santa Cruz, Calle Conde de Tójar 6 (now Acetres),<ref name="Villena introduction11">Villena intro to edition of Las Nubes p 11</ref> in Seville in 1902, the son of a colonel in the Regiment of Engineers. <ref name="Poesia completa">Poesía completa: Cronología biográfica</ref>  He had two older sisters. The recollections and impressions of childhood contained in his poems, and the prose poems collected in ''Ocnos'', suggest that he was always a solitary, introverted, and timid child whose unhappiness in the family led to his living vicariously through books and through his strong visual impressions of his native city.<ref name="Connell201">Connell p 201</ref>  His first encounter with poetry came at the age of 9 when he glanced through a copy of [[Bécquer]]'s ''Rimas'' that had been lent to his sisters by their cousins Luisa and Brígida de la Sota.<ref name="Cernuda625">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 625</ref>  Despite the fact that he later testified that this left no more than a dormant impression upon him, he began to write poetry himself during his studies at the Escolapios School in Seville from 1915 to 1919 around the age of 14.<ref name="hispanicexile.bham.ac.uk">hispanicexile.bham.ac.uk/people/51</ref>  In 1914, the family moved into the Engineers' Barracks in the Prado, on the outskirts of Seville.  In 1918, they moved to Calle del Aire, where he would later write the poems of ''Perfil del aire''. 
[[Image:Casa natal de Luis Cernuda.jpg|thumb|Birthplace of Luis Cernuda in Seville]]
In 1919 he began to study Law at the [[University of Seville]], where, during his first year, he attended classes in Spanish Language and Literature given by [[Pedro Salinas]].  His extreme shyness prevented him from mentioning his literary activities until Salinas' notice was caught by a prose poem published in a student magazine.  He gave Cernuda encouragement and urged him to read both classical Spanish poetry and modern French literature.<ref name="Cernuda627">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 627</ref>  It was at Salinas' suggestion that Cernuda sent his first collection of poetry, ''Perfil del aire'', to [[Manuel Altolaguirre]] and [[Emilio Prados]], who had begun, late in 1926, to publish a magazine called ''[[Litoral]]''.  As was the practice in those days, many such magazines published collections of poetry as supplements.

His father died in 1920 and he continued to live at home with his mother and sisters.  In 1923 he did military service in the Regiment of Cavalry.<ref name="Poesia completa" />  In 1924, as he was reaching the end of his undergraduate course, he participated in a series of meetings with a small group of fellow students in Salinas's house.  These stimulated his poetic vocation and helped to guide his readings of French literature.<ref name="Poesia completa" />

He became a Bachelor of Law in September 1925 but was undecided about what to do next.  He thought about joining the diplomatic service but decided not to on discovering that it would entail a move to Madrid.<ref name="Poesia completa" />   In October, Salinas arranged for him to make the acquaintance of [[Juan Ramón Jiménez]] in the gardens of the [[Alcázar of Seville]].<ref name="Poesia completa" />

In January 1926, he made his first trip to Madrid, where Salinas was instrumental in arranging introductions to, among others, [[Ortega y Gasset]] - who had published some of his poems in his ''Revista de Occidente'' in December 1925 - [[Juan Chabás]], [[Melchor Fernández Almagro]], and [[Enrique Díez-Canedo]];<ref name="hispanicexile.bham.ac.uk"/> At the time his first book was being unfavourably received around April 1927, he was again in Madrid.<ref name="Poesia completa" />  Although he later described himself at that time as ''inexperto, aislado en Sevilla'',<ref name=Cernuda629 /> he was in reality already known to a number of the influential Spanish literati of the period.  His indecision about a choice of career continued through 1926-27.  In December 1927, the [[Luis de Góngora#Góngora and the Generation of '27|Góngora tercentenary celebrations]] reached a climax with a series of poetry readings and lectures at the [[Ateneo de Sevilla|Arts Club of Seville]] by people such as [[García Lorca]], [[Dámaso Alonso]], [[Rafael Alberti]], [[Jorge Guillén]], [[José Bergamín]] and others.  Although he took no direct part in the proceedings, he did get the chance to read some of his poems and he made the acquaintance of Lorca.<ref name="Gibson200">Gibson p 200</ref>

===Madrid and France===

His mother died in July 1928 and, at the start of September, Cernuda left Seville.<ref name="Cernuda632">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 632</ref>  He spent a few days in Málaga with Altolaguirre, Prados and José María Hinojosa before moving to Madrid.  Although he had a law degree, he had no intention of making practical use of it.  He was starting to realise that poetry was the only thing that really mattered to him.<ref name="Cernuda633">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 633</ref>  He renewed acquaintance with [[Pedro Salinas]] and met [[Vicente Aleixandre]].  Salinas arranged for him to become the Spanish ''lector'' at the [[University of Toulouse]].  He took up post in November and stayed there for an academic year.<ref name="Poesia completa" /> The experience of living on his own in a foreign city led him to a crucial realisation about himself:  his almost crippling shyness, his unhappiness in a family setting, his sense of isolation from the rest of humanity, had all been symptoms of a latent homosexuality which now manifested itself and which he accepted, in a spirit of defiance.<ref name=Connell202 /> This led to a decisive change in the type of poetry he wrote.  He also discovered a love of jazz and films, which seems to have activated an interest in the USA.<ref name="Cernuda636">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 636</ref>

Between his return from Toulouse in June 1929 to 1936, Cernuda lived in Madrid and participated actively in the literary and cultural scene of the Spanish capital.  At the start of 1930, he found a job in a bookshop owned by León Sánchez Cuesta.  All through this period, he worked with many organisations attempting to create a more liberal and tolerant Spain.  For example, between 1932 and 1935, he participated in the ''Misiones Pedagógicas'' - a cultural outreach organisation set up by the [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republic]].<ref name="Poesia completa" />  He also contributed articles to radical journals such as ''[[Octubre (magazine)|Octubre]]'', edited by Alberti and his wife [[María Teresa León]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Salvador Jiménez-Fajardo|title=Multiple Spaces: The Poetry of Rafael Alberti|publisher=Tamesis Books|year=1985|isbn=978-0-7293-0199-2|page=26|location=London| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=59XAlhK9jN8C&pg=PA26}}</ref> which demonstrates his political commitment at that time, although there is no evidence that he formally joined the Communist Party.<ref name="Gibbons intro 10">Gibbons intro p 10</ref>   In June 1935, he took lodgings in Calle Viriato, Madrid, above the flat of Altolaguirre and his wife [[Concha Méndez]].<ref name="Poesia completa" />

In February 1936, he participated with Lorca and Alberti in an homage to the Galician writer [[Valle-Inclán]].<ref name="Poesia completa" />   Since ''Perfil del aire'', he had only managed to publish one collection - ''Donde habite el olvido'' - in 1934, and a few individual poems.  This difficulty in getting published gave Cernuda the chance to revise and reflect on his work.  It also occurred to him in the meantime that he could bring all his poetry together under the title ''La realidad y el deseo''.<ref name=Cernuda641>Cernuda OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 641</ref>   In April 1936, [[José Bergamín]] published the book in his journal ''Cruz y Raya''.  Subsequent editions added new poems as separate books under this collective title.  On April 21, there was a celebratory dinner, attended by Lorca, Salinas, [[Pablo Neruda]], Altolaguirre, Alberti, Aleixandre and Bergamín himself.<ref name=Gibson432>Gibson p 432</ref>

===Spanish Civil War===

When the [[Spanish Civil War]] broke out, a friend of his, [[Concha de Albornoz]], arranged for him to join her in Paris as secretary to her father, the ambassador [[Alvaro de Albornoz]].  He remained there from July to September 1936, but after that he returned to Madrid along with the ambassador and his family.<ref name="Cernuda642"/> Alvaro de Albornoz was a founding figure of the Spanish Second Republic and his daughter was a prominent figure in the artistic world of Madrid.

For perhaps the only time in his life Cernuda felt the desire to be useful to society, which he tried to do by serving on the Republican side.<ref name="Cernuda642">Cernuda: OCP Historial de un libro vol 1 p 642</ref>  He was hopeful that there was a possibility of righting some of the social injustices that he saw in Spanish society.  From October 1936 to April 1937, he participated in radio broadcasts with A. Serrano Plaja in the [[Sierra de Guadarrama]], north of Madrid.  In April 1937, he moved to Valencia and began to write poems that would be collected in ''Las Nubes''.  He also came into contact with Juan Gil-Albert and the other members of the editorial team behind the periodical ''[[Hora de España (magazine)|Hora de España]]'' and began to work with them.<ref name="Poesia completa" /> In June, the representative of the Ministry of Education made objections to a poem to be published in that journal on the subject of Lorca's murder and he had to remove a stanza that made explicit mention of the subject's homosexuality, which was neither common knowledge at that time nor was it acceptable to the Communist Party, who exerted pressure to censor it.<ref name=Taravillo383>Taravillo: Cernuda Años españoles p 383</ref> This poem, "A un poeta muerto (F.G.L.)" was later published in ''Las Nubes'' with the censored stanza restored. In later life, Cernuda reflected that this attempt to be socially committed had been futile: "the flow of events made me see, little by little, how instead of that chance of life for a young Spain, there was only the criminal game being played by a party that many people joined for personal gain."<ref name="Cernuda857">Cernuda: OCP notes to Historial de un libro vol 1 p 857</ref> He was motivated by his innate rebelliousness and disgust at Spanish society rather than by real political commitment.

He played the role of Don Pedro in a performance of Lorca's play ''Mariana Pineda''<ref name="Poesia completa" />  during the Second Congress of [[Anti-fascism|Anti-Fascist]] Intellectuals in [[Valencia (city in Spain)|Valencia]] in 1937.<ref name="hispanicexile.bham.ac.uk"/>  At this time, he met [[Octavio Paz]].<ref name="Poesia completa" />  In October, he returned to Madrid, where he remained until February 1938, working on the periodical ''[[El Mono Azul]]'', edited by Alberti and María Teresa León.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Silvina Schammah Gesser|author2=Alexandra Cheveleva Dergacheva|editor1=Raanan Rein|editor2=Joan Maria Thomás|title=Spain 1936: Year Zero|year=2018|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M5vHugEACAAJ|page=194|location=Brighton|publisher=Sussex Academic Press
|isbn=978-1845198923|chapter=An Engagé in Spain: Commitment and Its Downside in Rafael Alberti’s Philo-Sovietism}}</ref>

===Exile in Britain===

In 1935 at a salon hosted by Carlos Morla Lynch, a diplomat, diarist, amateur musician and closet homosexual working in the Chilean Embassy in Madrid, Cernuda met an English poet called Stanley Richardson, nine years younger than him, who was making a brief visit to the country.  Richardson had already met Altolaguirre and Concha Méndez in London.  They enjoyed some kind of intense but short-lived relationship, commemorated in a poem dated 20–22 March 1935 and included in ''Invocaciones'', before Richardson returned home.<ref name="Taravillo1315  ">Taravillo Años españoles p 315</ref>  In February 1938,<ref name="Stanley Richardson and Spain">Stanley Richardson and Spain</ref> Richardson arranged for him to give a series of lectures in Oxford and Cambridge.  At the time, Cernuda thought that he would be away from Spain for one or two months, however this was to be the start of an [[Spanish Republican exiles|exile]] that would last for the rest of his life.  The lectures never took place.  Richardson was well-connected, however, and arranged a party for him, attended by celebrities such as [[Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl|the Duchess of Atholl]], [[Gavin Henderson, 2nd Baron Faringdon]], the Chinese ambassador, [[Rebecca West]] and [[Rose Macaulay]].  Even by then, the situation in Spain meant that it was not advisable for Cernuda to return and so Richardson suggested that he should join a colony of evacuated Basque children at [[Eaton Hastings]] on Faringdon's estate.<ref name="Murphy: Pub Poets">Murphy: Pub Poets</ref>

After a few months in England, penniless and barely able to speak English, he went to Paris with the intention of returning to Spain.  But he stayed on in Paris on receiving news of what was happening in his native land.<ref name="Cernuda644">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 644</ref>   In August 1938, Richardson and Cernuda met again in Paris but, to judge from various of Cernuda's letters of the time, the intensity of their relationship had greatly weakened.<ref name="Epistolario246">Cernuda: Epistolario August 1938 Letters to Rafael Martínez Nadal p 246 and 247</ref> In September 1938 Richardson secured him a position as Spanish assistant in [[Cranleigh School]].<ref name="Cernuda645">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 645</ref> In January 1939 he became the ''lector'' at the [[University of Glasgow]].  Richardson was to die on 8 March 1941 in an air raid while dancing at [[the Ritz London|the Ritz]].  Cernuda wrote an elegy for him which was included in ''Como quien espera el alba'' in 1942.<ref name="Taravillo1316">Taravillo Años españoles p 316</ref> There is a poignant postlude. In August 1944, while walking around Cambridge, Cernuda noticed a framed photograph of Richardson hanging in the window of a Red Cross shop. On the back was part of the name of his godmother. Cernuda bought it.<ref name="Epistolario383">Epistolario August 1944 letter to Gregorio Prieto p 383</ref>

Neither Glasgow nor Scotland appealed to him, which is perhaps noticeable in the downbeat tone of the poems he wrote there.  From 1941 onward, he spent his summer vacations in Oxford, where, despite the ravages of the war, there were plenty of well-stocked bookshops.  In August 1943, he moved to [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]], where he was much happier.<ref name="Cernuda648">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 648</ref>  In Seville he used to attend concerts and music had always been very important to him.  The artistic life of Cambridge and London made it easier for him to develop his musical knowledge. [[Mozart]] was the composer whose music meant the most to him<ref name="Cernuda649">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 649</ref> and he devoted a poem to him in his last collection, ''Desolación de la Quimera''.

In 1940, while Cernuda was in Glasgow, Bergamín brought out in Mexico a second edition of ''La realidad y el deseo'', this time including section 7, ''Las nubes''.  A separate edition of this collection appeared in a pirated edition in Buenos Aires in 1943.  He had been afraid that the situation in Spain after the end of the Civil War would create such an unfavourable climate for writers who had gone into exile like him, that his work would be unknown to future generations.  The appearance of these two books was a ray of hope for him.<ref name="Cernuda647">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 647</ref>

In July 1945, he moved to a similar job at the Spanish Institute in London.  He regretted leaving Cambridge, despite the range and variety of theatres, concerts and bookshops in the capital.  He began to take his holidays in Cornwall because he was tired of the big city and urban life.<ref name="Cernuda651">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 651</ref>  So, in March 1947, when his old friend [[Concha de Albornoz]], who had been working at [[Mount Holyoke College]], [[Massachusetts]], wrote to offer him a post there, he accepted with alacrity.<ref name="Cernuda651"/>  He managed to secure a passage on a French liner from Southampton to New York, where he arrived on September 10.  He was coming from a country that was impoverished, still showing many signs of war damage and subject to rationing so the shops of New York made it seem as if he were arriving in an earthly paradise.<ref name="Cernuda654">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 654</ref>  He also responded favourably to the people and wealth of Mount Holyoke where, "for the first time in my life, I was going to be paid at a decent and fitting level".<ref name="Cernuda654"/>

===US and Mexico===

Although he was happy in Mount Holyoke, at the end of the 1947-48 year, a student advised him not to stay there and he himself began to wonder whether it was a beneficial force on his poetry.<ref name="Cernuda655">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 655</ref>  In the summer of 1949 he paid his first visit to Mexico and was so impressed that Mount Holyoke began to seem irksome.  This can be seen in the collection of prose ''Variaciones sobre tema mexicano'', which he wrote in the winter of 1949-50.<ref name="Cernuda655"/>  He began to spend his summers in Mexico and in 1951, during a 6-month sabbatical, he met X (identified by Cernuda only as Salvador), the inspiration for "Poemas para un cuerpo", which he started to write at that time.<ref name="Cernuda656">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 656</ref>  This was probably the happiest period of his life.

[[File:UNAM Biblioteca Central.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.75|The Central Library - University of Mexico.]]
Scarcely had he met X than his Mexican visa expired and he returned to the US via Cuba.  It became impossible for him to continue living in Mount Holyoke: the long winter months, the lack of sun, the snow all served to depress him.  On his return from vacation in 1952, he resigned from his post,<ref name="hispanicexile.bham.ac.uk"/> giving up a worthy position, a decent salary, and life in a friendly and welcoming country that offered him a comfortable and convenient lifestyle.  He had always had a restless temperament, a desire to travel to new places.  Only love had the power to overcome this need and make him feel at home in a place, to overcome his sense of isolation.  In this, there is perhaps a clue as to one of the reasons that he was attracted to the surrealists - the belief in the overwhelming power of love.  In addition, he always had a powerful attraction to beautiful young men.<ref name="Cernuda659">Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 659</ref>  He also had a constant urge to go against the grain of any society in which he found himself.  This helped him not to fall into provincial ways during his youth in Seville, whose inhabitants thought they were living at the centre of the world rather than in a provincial capital.  It also helped to immunise him against the airs and graces of Madrid or any other place in which he lived.<ref name=Cernuda659 />

In November 1952, he settled in Mexico<ref name=Cernuda660>Cernuda: OCP vol 1 Historial de un libro p 660</ref>  with his old friends Concha Méndez and Altolaguirre<ref name=hispanicexile.bham.ac.uk />(although since they had separated in 1944 and later divorced, Cernuda actually stayed with Concha).  Between 1954 and 1960 he was a lecturer at the [[National Autonomous University of Mexico]].  In 1958, the third edition of ''La realidad y el deseo'' was published in Mexico. For this edition Cernuda wrote an essay ''Historial de un libro'' which considers his work in order ''to see not so much how I made my poems but rather, as Goethe said, how they made me''.<ref name=Cernuda660 />  In 1958, Altolaguirre died and Cernuda took on the job of editing his poetry.  His two sisters died in 1960.<ref name="Poesia completa" />

In June 1960, he lectured at [[UCLA]] and became friendly with Carlos Otero, who was presenting a doctoral thesis on Cernuda's poetry that year.  This stay seems to have revitalised Cernuda and, on his return to Mexico, he began to write poetry again.  The poems he wrote in the autumn and winter of 1960-61 form the nucleus of his final collection, ''Desolación de la Quimera'', which he completed in San Francisco a few months later.  From August 1961 to June 1962, he gave courses at [[San Francisco State College]].  After a brief return to Mexico, he made his third and final visit to California in September 1962, where he was a visiting professor at UCLA until June 1963.  He spent the summer of 1963 in Mexico and, although he had an invitation to lecture at the [[University of Southern California]], he declined it in August, because of the need to undergo a medical in order to extend his visa.  He died in Concha Mėndez's house of a heart attack on November 5, 1963.  He was buried in the [[Panteón Jardín]], in Mexico City.<ref name="Poesia completa" />   He never married and had no children.