Unknown（Mondadori Publishers） · Public domain
12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973
Pablo Neruda, originally Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto
Pablo Neruda · 智利
20th-century Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician, winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Born on 12 July 1904 in Parral, Chile, he moved with his family to Temuco as a child; in 1921 he went to Santiago to study and then devoted himself to poetry, becoming famous with *Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair* (1924); he later served as Chile's diplomat in many places in Asia and Europe and was elected senator; his representative work *Canto General* (*General Song*) writes Latin America in epic form; in 1971 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, with the citation praising his poetry for awakening "the destiny and dreams of a continent with elemental force"; he died in Santiago on 23 September 1973.
People & stories
Places in their life
Birthplace Parral (Chile); places of activity Santiago and Temuco; burial place his home at Isla Negra, Chile — according to Chile's official tourism organisation, the home is now a museum, and Neruda and his wife Matilde Urrutia are buried there.
People
Cultural significance
Regarded as one of the most influential Latin American poets of the 20th century, his poetry combines personal lyricism with continental history and is a mark of Chilean literature reaching the world; his three homes (La Chascona in Santiago, La Sebastiana in Valparaíso, and Isla Negra) are all museums today.