Memoirs

the Classic And Deeply Moving Memoir By Pablo Neruda, The Most Widely Read Political Poet Of Our Time And Winner Of The Nobel Prize the South Of Chile Was A Frontier Wilderness When Pablo Neruda Was Born In 1904. In These Memoirs He Retraces His Bohemian Student Years In Santiago; His Sojourns As Chilean Consul In Burma, Ceylon, And Java, In Spain During The Civil War, And In Mexico; And His Service As A Chilean Senator. Neruda, A Communist, Was Driven From His Senate Seat In 1948, And A Warrant Was Issued For His Arrest. After A Year In Hiding, He Escaped On Horseback Over The Andes And Then To Europe; His Travels Took Him To Russia, Eastern Europe, And China Before He Was Finally Able To Return Home In 1952. The Final Section Of The Memoirs Was Written After The Coup In 1972 That Overthrew Neruda's Friend Salvador Allende. many Of The Century's Most Important Literary And Artistic Figures Were Neruda's Friends, And Figure In His Memoirs—garcia Lorca, Aragon, Picasso, And Rivera, Among Them—and Also Such Political Leaders As Gandhi, Nehru, Mao, Castro, And Che Guevara. In His Uniquely Expressive Prose, Neruda Not Only Explains His Views On Poetry And Describes The Circumstances That Inspired Many Of His Poems, But He Creates A Revealing Record Of His Life As A Poet, A Patriot, And One Of The Twentieth Century's True Men Of Conscience. The classic and deeply moving memoir by Pablo Neruda, the most widely read political poet of our time and winner of the Nobel Prize The south of Chile was a frontier wilderness when Pablo Neruda was born in 1904. In these memoirs he retraces his bohemian student years in Santiago; his sojourns as Chilean consul in Burma, Ceylon, and Java, in Spain during the civil war, and in Mexico; and his service as a Chilean senator. Neruda, a Communist, was driven from his senate seat in 1948, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. After a year in hiding, he escaped on horseback over the Andes and then to Europe; his travels took him to Russia, Eastern Europe, and China before he was finally able to return home in 1952. The final section of the memoirs was written after the coup in 1972 that overthrew Neruda's friend Salvador Allende. Many of the century's most important literary and artistic figures were Neruda's friends, and figure in his memoirs--Garcia Lorca, Aragon, Picasso, and Rivera, among them--and also such political leaders as Gandhi, Nehru, Mao, Castro, and Che Guevara. In his uniquely expressive prose, Neruda not only explains his views on poetry and describes the circumstances that inspired many of his poems, but he creates a revealing record of his life as a poet, a patriot, and one of the twentieth century's true men of conscience Perhaps no other modern poet received as much international recognition as Pablo Neruda, for in his poetry he addressed universal concerns, writing passionately about love, nature, the beauty of one's homeland (in his case, Chile), and the human condition. In his memoirs, first published in Spain a few months after his death in 1973, Neruda expanded upon these themes to provide a full portrait of one of the great poets of our age.Born the son of a railwayman in 1904, Neruda studied in Santiago before becoming a consul in countries ranging from Burma to Spain, later returning to Chile to become a senator. As a member of the Communist Party, which he saw as the only hope for the desperately poor miners of the Chilean lowlands, he became a target of official persecution and in 1948 was driven from his senate seat into hiding. He eventually escaped to Europe, where he met such individuals as Eluard, Gandhi, Mao, and Picasso and traveled to Russia and China. Finally able to return home in 1952, he left Chile again to serve as ambassador to France; while in Europe in 1971, he was awarded the Nobel Prize. But his happiest years were spent at his home in the verdant Isla Negra off the coast of Chile, where he wrote this volume, which is not only a record of his extraordinary life but also a significant part of the history of our time. "En el libro, Neruda hace un recorrido por su trayectoria vital: los fumaderos de opio en Tailandia, la Birmania dominada por los ingleses, sus experiencias con todo tipo de mujeres en todo tipo de situaciones, las conversaciones entre el poeta y Ernesto Che Guevara, sus viajes a México o a la URSS, su consulado en España durante la Segunda República Española y su ardua labor tras el estallido de la Guerra Civil española para salvar de la cárcel y de la muerte a republicanos, anarquistas y todo aquel que fuera oprimido bajo el régimen franquista, embarcándolos en el Winnipeg rumbo al exilio. Estos y otros sucesos se recrean con nitidez en la mente del autor"--Page 4 of cover. Pablo Neruda has been hailed as the greatest poet of the 20th century and was a Nobel laureat. Besides his life of writing, in these memoirs he also recounts his distinguished career as a diplomat and politician, during which he came to know iconic figures including Ghandi, Che Guevara and Mao Tse Tung. Memoirs is as full of Neruda's passionate, volatile and profoundly generous personality as lovers of his poetry would expect. Lorca, Vallejo, Picasso, Gandhi, Mao Tse-tung, Castro and Allende all appear here too, making Neruda's a life story of truly universal reach and significance, as well as the richest account we have of Latin American history, politics, art and literature UNDER the volcanoes, besides the snow-capped mountains, among the huge lakes, the fragrant, the silent, the tangled Chilean forest . . . My feet sink down into the dead leaves, a fragile twig crackles, the giant rauli trees rise in all their bristling height, a bird from the cold jungle passes over, flaps its wings, and stops in the sunless branches.