Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life

604 Pages·2004·3.57 MB·English

by  Adam Feinstein

PABLO NERUDA
PABLO NERUDA
A Passion for Life
ADAM FEINSTEIN
BLOOMSBURY
For my family
Copyright © 2.004 by Adam Feinstein
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or
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Bloomsbury Publishing, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, New York and London
Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers.
All papers used by Bloomsbury Publishing are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in well-
managed forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of
origin.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Feinstein, Adam.
Pablo Neruda : a passion for life / by Adam Feinstein.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Neruda, Pablo, 1904-1973. 2. Authors, Chilean—20th century—Biography. I. Title.
PQ8097.N4Z6174 2004
861'.62—dC22
2004000715
First published in the United States by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2004
This paperback edition published in 2005
eISBN: 978-1-59691781-1
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset by Hewer Text Ltd, Edinburgh
Printed in the United States by Quebecor World, Fairfield
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1 Secrets, shadows, wine and rain 1904-20
2 A bohemian in Santiago 1921-27
3 Asian desolation: 1927-32
4 Back home, new battles - and Buenos Aires 1932-34
5 Spanish sorrow - the turning-point 1934-37
6 A life-saving mission 1937-40
7 Mexican magic, marriage, a tragic telegram and a mordant badger 1940-43
8 From the rich heights of Machu Picchu down to the poverty of the driest place
on Earth 1943-48
9 'A year of blind rats' - Neruda in hiding 1948-49
10 Delia and Matilde - an Eastern European juggling act 1949-52
11 Return the conquering hero 1952-59
12 The new regime 1959-66
13 The other Cuban crisis 1966-68
14 The Nobel Prize - and a last, passionate love 1968-72
15 The final years - and a posthumous gift 1972-73
Notes
Select Bibliography
Copyright Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
It is no exaggeration to say that I could not have written this biography without
the generous support of Professor Robert Pring-Mill of St Catherine's College,
Oxford. I owe him an immense debt of gratitude for his friendship and his
hospitality, his kindness in lending me invaluable documents, in sharing his time,
his research, advice, list of contacts in Chile and personal anecdotes from his
own friendship with Pablo Neruda. Robert also read the manuscript of this book,
made copious notes and corrected some infelicities in my translations. Any
errors that remain are, of course, my own.
I am also enormously grateful to the Fundacion Pablo Neruda in Santiago for
putting me in touch with other friends and relatives of Neruda who helped me
while I was in Chile.
Support from the Wingate Foundation and the Leverhulme Trust allowed me
to travel to, and research the archives in, Chile, Spain and Russia.
I am grateful to Jose Miguel Varas, editor of the Chilean cultural magazine
Rocinante, for his insights and for providing me with further useful names and
telephone numbers.
I appreciate the help given to me by Juan Camilo Lorca at the Biblioteca
Nacional in Santiago in guiding me through the many files on Neruda at the
library, and to staff at the Biblioteca Municipal in Barcelona and the National
Archives in London for their patience in locating various relevant documents.
I am immensely indebted to Kathleen Boet-Herbert in The Hague for her
remarkable investigation into the life of Neruda's first wife, Maruca, and her
discovery of many previously unpublished details. I am also very grateful to
Anabel Torres for help in this area.
My thanks go to Julio Galvez in Chile for supplying information about
Neruda's time in Spain and to Frances Stonor Saunders for sharing her
documentation on the successful campaign to prevent Neruda winning the 1964
Nobel Prize.
For their willingness to share their insights and their memories of Neruda in
Chile, I must thank: Volodia Teitelboim, Margarita Aguirre, Aida Figueroa,
Sergio Insunza, Ines Valenzuela, Ines Figueroa; Poli Delano, Francisco Velasco,
Marie Martner, Sara Vial, Victor Pey, Roser Bru, Jose Balmes, Maria Galvez,
Victoria Lago, Federico Schopf, Rodolfo Reyes and Irma Pacheco in Santiago;
Francisco Velasco and Marie Martner in Valparaiso; Juan Carlos Reyes,
Bernardo Reyes and Lidia Herrera in Temuco and Nicanor Parra in Las Cruces.
I have to pay particular tribute to Neruda's friend, secretary and biographer
Margarita Aguirre, whom I met on several occasions in Santiago and who sadly
died in December 2003.
Special thanks must also go to the Chilean poet and journalist, Sara Vial, for
many hours of delightful and illuminating conversation in Vina del Mar and her
help in acquiring valuable documentation.
I am immensely grateful to Arthur Miller for sharing his experiences of
organising the 1966 PEN Congress in New York and his personal impressions of
Pablo Neruda during his stay in the United States.
Vera Kuteishikova in Moscow also gave me invaluable insights into Neruda's
many visits to the former Soviet Union, and this help is much appreciated. I am
also grateful to the staff of the National Archive Centre in Moscow for their
help.
I also acknowledge, with gratitude, the help given to me by Liu Hongbin, who
translated various Chinese texts relating to Neruda.
I would like to thank the staff members at Neruda's three houses in Chile La
Chascona, Isla Negra and La Sebastiana - who allowed me to make lengthy tours
of the buildings and their surroundings and to take photographs.
I am also grateful to Professor Jason Wilson, professor of Latin American
literature at London University, for many stimulating discussions while writing
this book and for lending me a number of useful documents. I would also like to
thank Dr Dominic Moran, of Oxford University, who made helpful suggestions
for this paperback edition.
I must pay tribute to Hernan Loyola's new edition of Neruda's Complete
Works, which has proved a constant source of information and delight.
I should also like to thank Liz Calder and Alexandra Pringle for their
unwavering enthusiasm for this project, my agent Victoria Hobbs, and my
editors at Bloomsbury, Bill Swainson and Victoria Millar, whose task it has been
to smooth out the rough edges.
ADAM FEINSTEIN