Frederico Garcia Lorca

Bio

(1898-1936) Spanish poet, playwright and dramatist. Attended Columbia University, living in Furnald Hall, for a year. The poetry, passion, and violence of his work and his own tragic and bloody death, brought him enduring international acclaim. A joyous, versatile person, he was an accomplished musician and had an enormously original theatrical imagination. GarcÍa Lorca’s works combine the spirit and folklore of his native Andalusia with his very personal understanding of life. His first book, in prose, “Impresiones y Paisajes” (1918), was followed by “Libro de Poemas” (1921), written in the year he went to Madrid. “Romancero Gitano” (1928; tr. “Gypsy Ballads,” 1953) made him the most popular Spanish poet of his generation. His celebrated “Llanto por Ignacio SÁnchez MejÍas” (1935; tr. “Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter,” 1937) and “Poeta en Nueva York” (1940; tr. “The Poet in New York,” 1955) are among his later poetry. Between 1927 and 1931 he wrote the plays “La zapatera prodigiosa” (tr. “The Shoemaker’s Wonderful Wife”), “Amor de don Perlimpin con Belisa en su jardin” (tr. “Love of Don Perlimpin and Belisa in His Garden)”, and “Retablillo do don CristÓbal” (tr. “Portrait of Don CristÓbal”). Under the Republic he directed and wrote for several theatrical groups. “DoÑa Rosita la soltera” (tr. “DoÑa Rosita the Spinster”) was staged in 1935. During the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he was assassinated by the “derechistas.”