Juan Ramón Jiménez

Juan Ramón Jiménez (December 24, 1881 – May 29, 1958) was a Spanish poet. He was born in Moguer, near Huelva in the Andalusia region of Southern Spain. He made the region famous with his prose poem about a writer and his donkey, called Platero y Yo (1914). He was a prolific poet and wrote several dozen books. One of his most important contributions to modern poetry was the idea of "poesia pura," or pure poetry. He was an opponent of the regime of Francisco Franco and fled to Puerto Rico in 1939. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956.

Biography

Born in Moguer, Jiménez studied law, which he declined to put to use. His father's death affected him deeply and the resulting depression sent him to a mental institution in France. He then returned to the Sanatorio de El Rosario in Madrid. He was opposed to Francisco Franco's dictatorship and was thus exiled with his wife Zenobia to Cuba, the U.S.A. and Puerto Rico. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year his wife died of breast cancer, and died two years later.

Related Topics:
Mental institution - France - Sanatorio de El Rosario - Madrid - Francisco Franco - Cuba - U.S.A. - Puerto Rico - Nobel Prize in Literature

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