In 1917, when he was already a well-known poet, Antonio Machado Ruiz wrote a mid-life fragment of autobiography. In typically modest words, Antonio Machado records the bare facts of his life to middle-age. He taught French in provincial backwaters of Spain; he married; and soon after, to his great sadness, his young wife died. But all this while, he was writing magnificent poetry. These few facts conceal a story of lifelong engagement with the landscape and destiny of a newly awakening Spain.
For two centuries Spanish society had been in decline, suffering from widespread corruption and economic inertia, living with an outdated illusion of its greatness (Graham 2005; Preston 2006). A coalition of clergy, military and the aristocracy headed by a Bourbon Monarch had maintained feudal
6009 words
Citation: Early, Patrick. "Antonio Machado". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 March 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11889, accessed 25 April 2024.]
