Pablo Neruda

Author profile

born

in Parral, Chile

July 12, 1904

died

September 23, 1973

genre

Poetry, Biographies & Memoirs

influences

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

About this author

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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)

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Pablo Neruda's Books

Average rating: 4.39 · 51,033 ratings · 2,214 reviews · 234 distinct works · Similar authors

	Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda, W.S. Merwin (Translator), Cristina Garcia (Introduction) 4.41 of 5 stars 4.41 avg rating — 14,565 ratings — published 1924 — 99 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Poetry of Pablo Neruda by Pablo Neruda, Ilan Stavans (Editor) 4.44 of 5 stars 4.44 avg rating — 8,137 ratings — published 1974 — 14 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	100 Love Sonnets 4.44 of 5 stars 4.44 avg rating — 6,531 ratings — published 1959 — 33 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda, Mark Eisner (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.46 of 5 stars 4.46 avg rating — 2,561 ratings — published 2004 — 4 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Captain's Verses by Pablo Neruda, Donald D. Walsh (Translator) 4.43 of 5 stars 4.43 avg rating — 2,926 ratings — published 1952 — 26 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Residence on Earth by Pablo Neruda, Donald D. Walsh (Translator) 4.41 of 5 stars 4.41 avg rating — 1,647 ratings — published 1972 — 19 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Selected Poems 4.39 of 5 stars 4.39 avg rating — 1,839 ratings — published 1961 — 16 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Odes to Common Things by Pablo Neruda, Ferris Cook (Illustrator), Ken Krabbenhoft 4.41 of 5 stars 4.41 avg rating — 1,195 ratings — published 1961 — 14 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Love: Ten Poems 4.49 of 5 stars 4.49 avg rating — 970 ratings — published 1995 — 3 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda, William O'Daly (Translator) 4.34 of 5 stars 4.34 avg rating — 993 ratings — published 1974 — 18 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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

20,394 people liked it

“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

tags: love, poetry

6,743 people liked it

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

tags: love

2,177 people liked it

See all Pablo Neruda's quotes »

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Pablo Neruda

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Pablo Neruda's Books