The Oxford Companion to English Literature | Neruda, Pablo
Neruda, Pablo
(
1904
–
73
), the pen-name (adopted by deed poll in
1946
, after the Czech poet
Jan Neruda
,
1834
–
91
) of Chilean poet and diplomat
Ricardo
Eliecer
Neftali
Reyes
, born in Parral, Chile, the son of a railwayman. He travelled widely in the diplomatic service from
1927
to
1938
(in south-east Asia and Spain), and after the Second World War (having joined the Communist Party in
1939
) he visited the USSR, China, and eastern Europe. His poetry, which ranges from short, intense personal lyrics to odes, political meditations, and various autobiographical works, both in prose and verse, won him an international reputation, and, in
1971
, the
Nobel Prize
for literature. A political activist and in many ways the prototype of the committed poet, he supported the socialist president
Allende
, and was Chilean ambassador to Paris in
1970
. He died in Santiago shortly after Allende's own death.
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