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Juan Ramón Jiménez
The Nobel Prize in Literature
1956
Biography
 Juan
Ramón Jiménez
(1881-1958) belonged to the
group of writers who, in the
wake of Spain's loss of her
colonies to the United States
(1898), staged a literary
revival. The leader of this
group of modernistas, as
they called themselves, Rubén
Darío, helped Juan Ramón to
publish Almas de violeta
(Souls of Violet), 1900, his
first volume of poetry. The
years between 1905 to 1912 Ramón
Jiménez spent at his birthplace,
Moguer, where he wrote
Elejías puras (Pure
Elegies), 1908, La soledad
sonora (Sonorous Solitude),
1911, and Poemas mágicos y
dolientes (Magic Poems of
Sorrow), 1911. His early poetry
was influenced by German
Romanticism and French
Symbolism. It is strongly visual
and dominated by the colours
yellow and green. His later
style, decisive, formally
ascetic, and dominated by white,
emerges in the poetic prose of
his delicate Platero y yo
(Platero and I), 1914, and is
fully developed in Diario de
un poeta recién casado
(Diary of a Newly-Wed Poet),
1917, written during a trip to
the United States, as well as in
Eternidades (Eternities),
1918, Piedra y cielo
(Stone and Sky), 1919, Poesía
(Poetry), 1923, and Belleza
(Beauty), 1923. In the twenties,
Ramón Jiménez became the
acknowledged master of the new
generation of poets. He was
active as a critic as well as an
editor of literary journals. In
1930 he retired to Seville to
devote himself to the revision
of his earlier work. Six years
later, as the result of the
Spanish Civil War, he left Spain
for Puerto Rico and Cuba. He
remained in Cuba for three years
and, in 1939, went to the United
States, which became his
residence until 1951, when he
moved definitely to Puerto Rico.
During these years Juan Ramón
taught at various universities
and published Españoles de
tres mundos (Spaniards of
Three Worlds), 1942, a book of
prose portraits, and several
collections of poems, among them
Voces de mi copla (Voices
of My Song), 1945, and Animal
de fondo (Animal of Depth).
The latter book, perhaps his
best, clearly reveals the
religious preoccupations that
filled the last years of the
poet's life. Selections from
most of his works were published
in English translation in
Selected Writings of Juan Ramón
Jiménez and Three Hundred
Poems, 1903-1953. Ramón
Jiménez died in Puerto Rico in
1958.
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