Person
Guillén, Jorge (1893-1984)Other forms
Valladolid (España) 1893-01-18 - Málaga (España) 1984-02-06
Spanish poet that was exiled. He was born in Valladolid in 1893 and was son of a businessman. He was interested in writing since he was young. He made his basic studies in Valladolid and later studied Arts in Madrid, staying at the "Residencia de Estudiantes", although he finally graduated in the University of Granada. He was in Freiburg (Switzerland) since 1909 until 1911, and then moved to the Sorbonne in Paris, working as Spanish conversation assistant until 1923. He met his wife Germaine Cahen during his trips, and married her in 1921. He started to write in 1918 at the same time he collaborated in "La Libertad" newspaper. He returned to Madrid and met García Lorca, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí in the "Residencia de Estudiantes". When he finished his PhD in 1923, he held a chair in the University of Murcia and later in Seville as well. He wrote "Verso en Prosa" during this period of time and became friend of Juan Ramón Jiménez and started to join the Generation of '27.
During the years of the Republic, he published in Madrid the magazine "Los Cuatro Vientos". He also published in 1928 in "Occidente" magazine a compilation of his work since 1918 until 1928: "Cántico". When the Spanish Civil War started, he was in Valladolid and the Generation of '27 dispersed. He was for a short period of time in jail in Pamplona and sent his kids to France. He collaborated in his friend Azaña's magazine "La Pluma" but keeping his intellectual independence, because he considered himself a liberal socializing. He moved to France in July 1938, and to the USA in September.
He worked there as teacher in several universities until 1947, and held the Professorship of Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, where he wrote "Lenguaje y Poesía", his most important prose work. His wife died in 1947 and he decided to go to Mexico, where he met Alfonso Reyes and Pedro Henríquez Ureña, and worked as teacher in "El Colegio de México". He also was in contact with Daniel Cosío Villegas and Arnaldo Orfila Reynal, and later on, with Octavio Paz, Xavier Villaurrutia and Salvador Novo. He returned to Spain in 1949 in order to pay his sick father a visit, that unfortunately died in 1950. Since the fifties and until the seventies, he was awarded with many national and international poetry prizes. He married again in 1958 an Italian woman, Irene, and moved to Málaga. He resumed his teaching career in Harvard and Puerto Rico, but he had a fall and broke his hip, forcing him to leave his job. He retired in Spain.
Date of the event: 1936 - 1939
. Pla Brugat, Dolores. Catálogo del fondo de historia oral : refugiados españoles en México : Archivo de la Palabra. 1ª ed.. Dolores Pla Brugat (coordinadora). México D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. 2011. 1 CD-ROM. 978-607-484-184-8.
Guillén, Jorge. Aub, Elena. Proyecto de Historia Oral "Refugiados Españoles en México", Archivo de la Palabra, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), México : entrevista a Jorge Guillen. realizada por Elena Aub [para El Instituto Nacional de Antropología E Historia de México En Colaboración Con el Ministerio de Cultura de España]. [s.L.: S.N.]: 1979]. 132 H..