Pablo Neruda

Author profile

born

July 12, 1904 in Parral, Chile

died

September 23, 1973

gender

male

genre

Poetry, Biographies & Memoirs

influences

Salvador Allende, Gabriela Mistral, Rafael Alberti, Federico Garcia Lo...more

About this author

edit data

Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda assumed his pen name as a teenager, partly because it was in vogue, partly to hide his poetry from his father, a rigid man who wanted his son to have a "practical" occupation. Neruda's pen name was derived from Czech writer and poet Jan Neruda; Pablo is thought to be from Paul Verlaine. With his works translated into many languages, Pablo Neruda is considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th century.

Neruda was accomplished in a variety of styles ranging from erotically charged love poems like his collection Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair, surrealist poems, historical epics, an...more Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda assumed his pen name as a teenager, partly because it was in vogue, partly to hide his poetry from his father, a rigid man who wanted his son to have a "practical" occupation. Neruda's pen name was derived from Czech writer and poet Jan Neruda; Pablo is thought to be from Paul Verlaine. With his works translated into many languages, Pablo Neruda is considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th century.

Neruda was accomplished in a variety of styles ranging from erotically charged love poems like his collection Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair, surrealist poems, historical epics, and overtly political manifestos. In 1971 Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature, a controversial award because of his political activism. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez once called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language."

On July 15, 1945, at Pacaembu Stadium in São Paulo, Brazil, he read to 100,000 people in honor of Communist revolutionary leader Luís Carlos Prestes. When Neruda returned to Chile after his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Salvador Allende invited him to read at the Estadio Nacional before 70,000 people.

During his lifetime, Neruda occupied many diplomatic posts and served a stint as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When Conservative Chilean President González Videla outlawed communism in Chile, a warrant was issued for Neruda's arrest. Friends hid him for months in a house basement in the Chilean port of Valparaíso. Later, Neruda escaped into exile through a mountain pass near Maihue Lake into Argentina. Years later, Neruda was a close collaborator to socialist President Salvador Allende.

Neruda was hospitalized with cancer at the time of the Chilean coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet. Three days after being hospitalized, Neruda died of heart failure. Already a legend in life, Neruda's death reverberated around the world. Pinochet had denied permission to transform Neruda's funeral into a public event. However, thousands of grieving Chileans disobeyed the curfew and crowded the streets. Neruda's funeral became the first public protest against the Chilean military dictatorship.(less)

combine editions
Books by Pablo Neruda

Average rating: 4.38 · 31,572 ratings · 1,717 reviews · 172 distinct works

	Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda, W.S. Merwin (Translator), Cristina Garcia (Introduction) 4.42 avg rating — 9,450 ratings — published 1999 — 88 editions	My rating:
	The Poetry of Pablo Neruda by Pablo Neruda, Ilan Stavans (Editor) 4.45 avg rating — 3,901 ratings — published 1974 — 14 editions	My rating:
	100 Love Sonnets 4.46 avg rating — 3,884 ratings — published 1959 — 23 editions	My rating:
	The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda, Mark Eisner (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.45 avg rating — 1,651 ratings — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Captain's Verses by Pablo Neruda, Donald D. Walsh (Translator) 4.44 avg rating — 1,843 ratings — published 1952 — 22 editions	My rating:
	Selected Poems 4.39 avg rating — 1,288 ratings — published 1961 — 16 editions	My rating:
	Residence on Earth by Pablo Neruda, Donald D. Walsh (Translator) 4.40 avg rating — 1,013 ratings — published 1972 — 18 editions	My rating:
	Odes to Common Things by Pablo Neruda, Ferris Cook (Illustrator), Ken Krabbenhoft 4.39 avg rating — 902 ratings — published 1980 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Love: Ten Poems 4.47 avg rating — 689 ratings — published 1995 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda, William O'Daly (Translator) 4.31 avg rating — 701 ratings — published 1974 — 16 editions	My rating:

More books by Pablo Neruda…

Quotes by Pablo Neruda

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

tags: love , poetry

12,634 people liked it

“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”
― Pablo Neruda

tags: love , poetry

2,283 people liked it

“Love is so short, forgetting is so long.”
― Pablo Neruda, Love: Ten Poems

tags: love

1,275 people liked it

See all Pablo Neruda's quotes »

Polls

Pick our September Poet of the Month

Pablo Neruda

17 votes, 45.9%

Dylan Thomas

7 votes, 18.9%

Langston Hughes

7 votes, 18.9%

Theodore Roethke

5 votes, 13.5%

Billy Collins

1 vote, 2.7%

37 total votes

9 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Next Best Boo...: poetry	27	120	Mar 17, 2009 08:34pm
The Next Best Boo...: Original language	9	58	Mar 25, 2009 12:31am
College Students! : Summer Challenge--Official Record of Points	43	536	Aug 31, 2009 08:41pm
The Seasonal Read...: Hispanic Heritage Month	27	161	Oct 05, 2009 11:10pm
The Seasonal Read...: 25.4 - Nicole OH's Task - Happy Birthday to Me!	104	215	Jul 31, 2010 10:10am

More…

Pablo's Fans (1277)

Pablo Neruda

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Pablo Neruda

Quotes by Pablo Neruda

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Books by Pablo Neruda