Editing Federico García Lorca (section)

===As a young writer===
[[File:Salvador Dalí, Federico García Lorca, Barcelona, 1925.jpg|thumb|Federico García Lorca with Salvador Dalí, Turó Park de la Guineueta, Barcelona, 1925]]At the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, García Lorca befriended [[Luis Buñuel]] and [[Salvador Dalí]] and many other creative artists who were, or would become, influential across Spain.<ref name="Maurerx" /> He was taken under the wing of the poet [[Juan Ramón Jiménez]], becoming close to playwright [[Eduardo Marquina]] and [[Gregorio Martínez Sierra]], the Director of [[Madrid]]'s Teatro Eslava.<ref name="Maurerx" />

In 1919–20, at Sierra's invitation, he wrote and staged his first play, ''[[The Butterfly's Evil Spell]]''. It was a verse play dramatising the impossible love between a cockroach and a butterfly, with a supporting cast of other insects; it was laughed off the stage by an unappreciative public after only four performances and influenced García Lorca's attitude to the theatre-going public for the rest of his career. He would later claim that ''[[Mariana Pineda (play)|Mariana Pineda]]'', written in 1927, was, in fact, his first play. During his time at the Residencia de Estudiantes, he pursued degrees in law and philosophy, though he had more interest in writing than in study.<ref name="Maurerx" />

García Lorca's first book of poems, ''Libro de poemas'', was published in 1921, collecting work written from 1918, and selected with the help of his brother Francisco (nicknamed Paquito). They concern the themes of religious faith, isolation, and nature that had filled his prose reflections.<ref name="Maurerxi">Maurer (2001) p. xi</ref> Early in 1922, at Granada García Lorca joined the composer [[Manuel de Falla]] in order to promote the [[Concurso de Cante Jondo]], a festival dedicated to enhancing [[flamenco]] performance and its [[cante jondo]] style. The year before, García Lorca had begun to write his ''{{ill|Poema del cante jondo|es}}'' ("Poem of the Deep Song", not published until 1931), so he naturally composed an essay on the art of [[flamenco]],<ref>Federico García Lorca, "El cante jondo (Primitivo canto andaluz)" (1922), reprinted in a collection of his essays entitled ''Prosa'' (Madrid: Alianza Editorial 1969, 1972) at 7–34.</ref> and began to speak publicly in support of the ''Concurso''. At the music festival in June, he met the celebrated [[Manuel Torre]], a flamenco ''cantaor''. The next year in Granada he also collaborated with Falla and others on the musical production of a play for children, ''La niña que riega la albahaca y el príncipe preguntón'' (''The Girl that Waters the Basil and the Inquisitive Prince'') adapted by Lorca from an Andalusian story.<ref>José Luis Cano, ''García Lorca'' (Barcelona: Salvat Editores 1985) at 54–56 (''Concurso''), at 56–58 (play), and 174.</ref> Inspired by the same structural form of sequence as "Deep Song", his collection ''Suites'' (1923) was never finished and was not published until 1983.<ref name="Maurerxi" />[[File:Postal de Federico a Antonio de Luna.jpg|thumb|Postcard from Lorca and Dalí to Antonio de Luna, signed "Federico". "Dear Antoñito: In the midst of a delicious ambience of sea, phonographs and cubist paintings I greet you and I hug you. Dalí and I are preparing something that will be 'moll bé.' Something 'moll bonic.' Without realizing it, I have deposited myself in the Catalan. Goodbye Antonio. Say hello to your father. And salute yourself with my finest unalterable friendship. You've seen what they've done with Paquito! (Silence)" Above, penned by Dalí: "Greetings from Salvador Dalí"]]

Over the next few years, García Lorca became increasingly involved in Spain's [[avant-garde]]. He published a poetry collection called ''Canciones'' (''Songs''), although it did not contain songs in the usual sense. Shortly after, Lorca was invited to exhibit a series of drawings at the [[Galeries Dalmau#1927: Federico García Lorca|Galeries Dalmau]] in Barcelona, from 25 June to 2 July 1927.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pandora.girona.cat/viewer.vm?id=2934456&view=dalmau&lang=en |title=Exposició de dibuixos de Federico García Lorca |last=Dalmau |first=Josep |date=2 July 1927 |place=Barcelona}}</ref> Lorca's sketches were a blend of popular and avant-garde styles, complementing ''Canción''. Both his poetry and drawings reflected the influence of traditional [[Andalusians|Andalusian]] motifs, [[Cubist]] syntax, and a preoccupation with sexual identity. Several drawings consisted of superimposed dreamlike faces (or shadows). He later described the double faces as self-portraits, showing "man's capacity for crying as well as winning," in line with his conviction that sorrow and joy were as inseparable as life and death.<ref name="Stainton">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSPQXJGRt6oC&q=dalmau&pg=PT502 |last=Leslie |first=Stainton |title=Lorca – a Dream of Life |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |date=2013 |isbn=978-1448213443}}</ref>

{{Quote box
| width = 350px
| align = left
| quoted = true
| salign = right
| quote = <poem>
Green wind. Green branches.
The ship out on the sea
and the horse on the mountain.
With the shadow at the waist
she dreams on her balcony,
green flesh, green hair,
with eyes of cold silver.
</poem>
| source = From "Romance Sonámbulo", <br />("Sleepwalking Romance"), García Lorca
}}

''[[Romancero gitano]]'' (''Gypsy Ballads'', 1928), part of his Cancion series, became his best-known book of poetry.<ref name="Maurerxii">Maurer (2001) p. xii</ref> It was a highly stylised imitation of the ballads and poems that were still being told throughout the Spanish countryside. García Lorca describes the work as a "carved altar piece" of Andalusia with "gypsies, horses, archangels, planets, its Jewish and Roman breezes, rivers, crimes, the everyday touch of the smuggler and the celestial note of the naked children of [[Córdoba, Andalusia|Córdoba]]. A book that hardly expresses visible Andalusia at all, but where the hidden Andalusia trembles."<ref name="Maurerxii" /> In 1928, the book brought him fame across Spain and the Hispanic world, and it was only much later that he gained notability as a playwright. For the rest of his life, the writer would search for the elements of Andaluce culture, trying to find its essence without resorting to the "picturesque" or the clichéd use of "local colour".<ref name="Maurerxiii">Maurer (2001) p. xiii</ref>

His second play, ''[[Mariana Pineda (play)|Mariana Pineda]]'', with stage settings by Salvador Dalí, opened to great acclaim in [[Barcelona]] in 1927.<ref name="Maurerx" /> In 1926, García Lorca wrote the play ''[[The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife (play)|The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife]]'', which would not be shown until the early 1930s. It was a farce about fantasy, based on the relationship between a flirtatious, petulant wife and a hen-pecked shoemaker.[[File:LorcaSundial.jpg|thumb|Lorca as a student at [[Columbia University]], 1929]]From 1925 to 1928, he was passionately involved with Dalí.<ref>[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]: "From 1925 to 1928, García Lorca was passionately involved with Salvador Dalí. The intensity of their relationship led García Lorca to acknowledge if not entirely accept, his own homosexuality."</ref> Although Dali's friendship with Lorca had a strong element of mutual passion,{{efn|For more in-depth information about the Lorca-Dalí connection see ''Lorca-Dalí: el amor que no pudo ser'' and ''The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí'', both by [[Ian Gibson (author)|Ian Gibson]].}} Dalí said he rejected the erotic advances of the poet.<ref name="conversations">{{cite web |last=Bosque |first=Alain |url=http://www.ubu.com/historical/dali/dali_conversations.pdf |title=Conversations with Dalí |date=1969 |pages=19–20 |quote=S.D.: He was homosexual, as everyone knows, and madly in love with me. He tried to screw me twice... I was extremely annoyed, because I wasn't homosexual, and I wasn't interested in giving in. Besides, it hurts. So nothing came of it. But I felt awfully flattered vis-à-vis the prestige. Deep down I felt that he was a great poet and that I owe him a tiny bit of the Divine Dalí's asshole.}}</ref> With the success of "Gypsy Ballads", came an estrangement from Dalí and the breakdown of a love affair with sculptor [[Emilio Aladrén Perojo]]. These brought on an increasing depression, a situation exacerbated by his anguish over his [[homosexuality]]. He felt he was trapped between the persona of the successful author, which he was forced to maintain in public, and the tortured, authentic self, which he could acknowledge only in private. He also had the sense that he was being pigeon-holed as a "gypsy poet". He wrote: "The gypsies are a theme. And nothing more. I could just as well be a poet of sewing needles or hydraulic landscapes. Besides, this gypsyism gives me the appearance of an uncultured, ignorant and primitive poet that you know very well I'm not. I don't want to be typecast."<ref name="Maurerxiii" />

Growing estrangement between García Lorca and his closest friends reached its climax when [[surrealist]]s Dalí and [[Luis Buñuel]] collaborated on their 1929 film ''[[Un Chien Andalou]]'' (''An Andalusian Dog''). García Lorca interpreted it, perhaps erroneously, as a vicious attack upon himself.<ref>Buñuel, Luis. ''My Last Sigh''. Translated by Abigail Israel. University of Minnesota Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-8166-4387-3}}. P. 66.</ref> At this time Dalí also met his future wife [[Gala Dalí|Gala]]. Aware of these problems (though not perhaps of their causes), García Lorca's family arranged for him to make a lengthy visit to the United States in 1929–30.

In June 1929, García Lorca travelled to the US with Fernando de los Rios on the [[RMS Olympic|RMS ''Olympic'']], a sister liner to the [[RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic'']].<ref name="Maurerxiv" /> They stayed mostly in New York City, where Rios started a lecture tour and García Lorca enrolled at [[Columbia University School of General Studies]], funded by his parents. He studied English but, as before, was absorbed more by writing than by study. At Columbia, he lived in room 617 in [[Furnald Hall]] before moving to room 1231 in [[John Jay Hall]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=CU summer housing: Lorca slept here – News from Columbia's Rare Book & Manuscript Library |url=https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/rbml/2018/05/21/cu-summer-housing-lorca-slept-here/ |access-date=2022-03-22 |website=blogs.cul.columbia.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Dinitia |date=2000-07-04 |title=Poetic Love Affair With New York; For Garcia Lorca, the City Was a Spiritual Metaphor |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/04/books/poetic-love-affair-with-new-york-for-garcia-lorca-city-was-spiritual-metaphor.html |access-date=2022-03-22 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He also spent time in [[Vermont]] and later in [[Havana]], Cuba.

His collection ''[[Poeta en Nueva York]]'' (''Poet in New York'', published posthumously in 1940) explores alienation and isolation through some graphically experimental poetic techniques and was influenced by the [[Wall Street crash]] which he personally witnessed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/43294226 |last=García Lorca |first=Federico |title=Poeta en Nueva York |place=Madrid |date=1958}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/3426914 |author=Río, Ángel del |title=Historia de la Literatura Española |place=New York |date=1948 |pages=340–343}}</ref>
<ref>Río, Ángel del. Columbia University. Amelia A. de del Rio. Barnard College.  II Antología general de la Literatura Española, Federico García Lorca, pp. 785–791, Libro De Poemas, 1960 . Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York Library of Congress Card Number 60-6296</ref>

This condemnation of urban capitalist society and materialistic modernity was a sharp departure from his earlier work and label as a folklorist.<ref name="Maurerxiv">Maurer (2001) p. xiv</ref> His play of this time, ''[[The Public (play)|El público]]'' (''The Public''), was not published until the late 1970s and has never been published in its entirety, the complete manuscript apparently lost. However, the [[Hispanic Society of America]] in New York City retains several of his personal letters.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hispanicsociety.org/ |title=Hispanic Society of America |date=16 October 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://lorcanyc.com/program |title=Lorca in NY}} 5 April – 20 July 2013, Back Tomorrow: Federico García Lorca / Poet in New York, New York Public Library Exhibition. Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Wachenheim Gallery.</ref>