Editing Luis Cernuda (section)

===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>