Editing Luis Cernuda (section)

===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>