Pablo Neruda

1904 – 1973

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician whose vast body of work—from the early Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924) to the political Canto General (1950) and the Elemental Odes—made him one of the foundational voices of 20th-century Spanish-language poetry. He served as a senator for the Communist Party of Chile and as Chile's ambassador to France, and was awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in September 1973, days after the U.S.-backed military coup that overthrew his friend President Salvador Allende, and a 2023 Chilean court ruling confirmed earlier suspicions that he had been poisoned.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM