Federico Garcia Lorca (June 5, 1898 - August 19, 1936) was born in Fuente Vaqueros, Granada. He grew to be a talented pianist as well as poet and playwright. His first published book was Impresiones y Paisajes, a volume of prose published in 1918.

Between 1919 and 1924 Lorca lived at the Student Residence of the University of Madrid. In 1920 he was matriculated to the university. It was there that he met Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali, Ramon Gomez de la Serna, Luis Cernuda, Rafael Alberti and others, and wrote his earliest mature plays and poetry.

During the late 1920s, Lorca began to feel distressed over the cooling of his passionate friendship with Salvador Dali and the end of a torrid affair with the sculptor Emilio Aladren. Both men had chosen, in the end, by marrying, to adopt exclusively heterosexual lifestyles. This seems to have suggested that, as time went on, his sexual orientation might involve even more devestating loses than he had previously experienced. The crisis was profound. When his family offered to send him to New York's Columbia University to further his studies, he accepted. He found his English courses unfathomable and spent almost no time at classes. Instead, he spent 1929 and '30 investigating Harlem and jazz and looking up fellow Spaniards. He also spent time with friends in Vermont.

In 1931 Lorca founded La Barraca (a traveling theater) together with Eduardo Ugarte. His association with the theater would continue until his death.

During the years 1933 and 1934 Lorca made a celebrated visit to Argentina and Uruguay where his work had already been particularly well received. It was at this time, in Buenos Aires, that he first met a young temporary attache to the Chilean embassy, Pablo Neruda. He also met the still younger Jorge Luis Borges. Borges, however, had already become the leader of his own small, indigenous literary movement and was deeply offended by Lorca's compulsive need to command the center stage at all times wherever he went.

In late July of 1936, Granada passed from the hands of the Republican government into those of the fascist Nationalists. Somewhat inexplicably, Lorca returned from Madrid to Grenada in mid-August. He attempted for several days to contact family and friends in the city without his presence being known. On August 16, 1936, he was detained for questioning. On August 19, he was shot by firing-squad, near the town of Barranco de Viznar, and buried in a common grave.

Interviews:



Essays/Ensayos in English:

• "The Duende: Theory and Divertissement" by Federico Garcia Lorca. Tr. Anon. (Music & Psyche);
• "In Your Name this Death is Holy": Federico Garcia Lorca in the Works of Modern Arab Poets by Yair Huri (Ciber Letras);
• "La Generacion del 27: Dali, Bunuel, and Lorca" (Poets.org);
• "The Poet in New York" by Jaime Manrique (Lincoln Center Theater Review, Winter 2006);
• "Survival in Two Worlds at Once: Federico Garcia Lorca and Duende" by Tracey K. Smith (Poets.org);
• "Ted Hughes and Federico Garcia Lorca: From Yorkshire to Andalucia" by by S. Paul (A triptych of poets , December 2004);
• "The White Space: Garcia Lorca & Music" by Ned Sublette. (Lincoln Center Theater Review, Winter 2006);

Essays/Ensayos en Espagnol:

• "La Obra Poetica de Federico Garcia Lorca" por Jose Antonio Serrano Segura (Estudios y Recursos Literarios);
• 'Hacia el texto depurado de "Poeta en Nueva York"' por Daniel Eisenberg (Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes);

Poems/Poemas:

• Adivinanza De La Guitarra (Poem Hunter);
• Balada Amarilla IV (Poem Hunter);
• Casida de los Ramos (Jacket Magazine);
• Gacela del Amor Imprevisto (Jacket Magazine);
• Gacela del Nino Muerto (Cipher Journal);
• Gacela de la Terrible Presencia (Cipher Journal);

Poems/Poemas in English Translation:

• Ballad of the Moon tr. Will Kirkland (Poem Hunter);
• Casida of the Branches tr. Gilbert Wesley Purdy (Jacket Magazine);
• Gacela Of The Dark Death tr. Robert Bly (The Plagiarist);
• Gacela of Dark Death tr. Michelle Cliff (American Poetry Review, Mar/Apr 2005);
• Gacela of the Dead Boy tr. Gilbert Wesley Purdy (Cipher Journal);
• Gacela of Distracted Love tr. Gilbert Wesley Purdy (Palm Beaches Review);
• Gacela of the Memory of Love tr. Gilbert Wesley Purdy (Palm Beaches Review);
• Gacela of the Terrible Presence tr. Gilbert Wesley Purdy (Cipher Journal);
• Gacela of the Terrible Presence tr. Michelle Cliff (American Poetry Review, Mar/Apr 2005);
• Gacela of Unforseen Love tr. Gilbert Wesley Purdy (Jacket Magazine);
• "Gongoran Sonnet in which the Poet Sends a Dove to His Beloved", "Love Sleeps in the Poet's Heart", and "Sonnet about the Letter", tr. Rafael Campo (Marlboro Review);
• Romance Sonambulo tr. William Logan (The Plagiarist);
• Tree, Tree tr. William Logan (Poem Hunter);

Correspondence:

• Letters between Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia Lorca. Tr. Christopher Maurer. (Lincoln Center Theater Review, Winter 2006);
• To his father, Federico Garcia Rodriguez, April 10, 1920 tr. by Christopher Maurer (Jubilat);

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Photos:

• Portrait (Cyber Spain);
• With Luis Bunuel in bi-plane (Cyber Spain);
• In Barraca uniform (Cyber Spain);
• Photo Gallery (Garcia-Lorca.net);

Book Reviews:

• Blood Wedding: A Tragedy by F. Garcia Lorca. Tr. Gilbert Neiman and Poems of F. Garcia Lorca. Review by Charles Poore (New York Times, November 1939);
• Collected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca. Review by M. L. Raina. (Spectrum, June 2003);
• The Death of Lorca by Ian Gibson. Review by David Eisenberg (Hispanic Review, 1976)(pdf format);
• Federico Garcia Lorca in flamenco by Alicia R. Mediavilla. Tr. Yasha Maccanico. Review by Anon. (Flamenco.com);
• Federico Garcia Lorca y la cultura de la homosexualidad. Lorca, Dali, Cernuda, Gil-Albert, Prados y la voz silenciada del amor homosexual. by Angel Sahuquillo. Review by David Eisenberg. (Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 1988)(pdf format);
• From Lorca's Theatre Five plays of Frederic Garcia Lorca. Tr. Richard L. O'Connell and James Graham L., with a foreword by Stark Young. Review by Lloyd Mallan (New York Times, February 1942);
• The Gypsy Ballads of Federico Garcia Lorca. Tr. Rolfe Humphries. Review by Lloyd Mallan (New York Times, June 1953);
• In Search of Duende by Federico Garcia Lorca. Tr. Norman Thomas Di Giovanni. Review by David Grayson (Cortland Review, Februaray 1999)
• Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter and Other Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca. Tr. A. L. Lloyd. Review by Eda Lou Walton (New York Times, February 1938);
• Poems by F. Garcia Lorca. Tr. Stephen Spender and J. L. Gili. Review by Peter Monro Jack (New York Times, September 1939);
• Poet in New York by Federico Garcia Lorca. Edited, and with an introduction, by Christopher Maurer. Tr. Greg Dictionary Simon and Steven F. White, and Poem of the Deep Song by Federico Garcia Lorca. Tr. Carlos Bauer. Review by David H. Rosenthal (New York Times, November 1988);
• The Poet in New York, and Other Poems by F. Garcia Lorca. Tr. Rolfe Humphries. With an introduction by Jose Bergamin. Tr. Herschel Brickell. Review by Charles Poore (New York Times, May 1940);

Play/Movie Reviews:

• Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca. Review by Lizzie Loveridge. A London production of the play. (Curtain Up, 2005);
• Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca. Review by Adrienne Cea. A New York production of the play. (Off Off Online, July 2006);
• The Disappearance Of Garcia Lorca. Review by Roger Ebert (RogerEbert.com);
• "'The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca': Tracking Down the Killers of a Poet". Review by Stephen Holden (New York Times, September 1997);
• 'The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca'. Review by Kim Williamson (Boxoffice Online);
• Yerma by Federico Garcia Lorca. Reviewed by Sam Marlowe (?). A London production at the Arcola Theatre. (London Times, August 2006);

News Stories/Articles:

• Composer Golijov Tries Opera with 'Ainadamar' by Jeff Lunden (National Public Radio, May 2006): Real Audio;
• Federico Garcia Lorca's body to be exhumed by Paul Stuart (World Socialist Web Site, October 2003);
• A Garcia Lorca Work Is Reinterpreted at 50 by C. Gerald Fraser (New York Times, December 1990);
• The Granada of Federico Garcia Lorca by Leslie Stainton (New York Times, May 1986);
• Literary Pilgrimages; Federico Garcia Lorca by Ian Gibson (New York Times, May 1998);
• Poet's death still troubles Spain by Rafael Estefania (BBC, August 2006);

Miscellaneous:

• Academy of American Poets page (Poets.org);
• Alphabetical Concordance to Lorca's Poetry (Southern Polytech, GA);
• Frequency Concordance to Lorca's Poetry (Southern Polytech, GA);
• Museo Casa-natal de Federico Garcia Lorca (en Espagnol);
• Virtual Tour of Lorca's Grenada and Environs (Garcia Lorca Tours);

Other VGS Author Pages:

• Wendell Berry;
• Claudia Emerson (Winner of 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry);
• Thomas Gray;
• John Keats;
• Ted Kooser;
• Giacomo Leopardi;
• Lisel Mueller (Winner of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry);
• Pablo Neruda; and,
• Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Labels: Poetry