Lorca
Page 67
“to be a flower”:
FGL, “Mística que trata de la melancolía,” in OC, IV, 547, trans. Maurer, introduction to FGL,
Collected Poems
, xxviii.
“An exotic and distant virgin” and “most of the time”:
FGL, “Pierrot. Poema íntimo,” in OC, IV, 833.
“My Village”:
FGL, “Mi pueblo,” in OC, IV, 843–64. On the significance of Compadre Pastor’s death see Maurer, introduction to FGL,
Prosa inédita
, 40–41.
“things,” “beautiful not show it to anyone”:
Vicenta Lorca to FGL (November 18, 1920), AFFGL, excerpted in
EC
, 87n.
“Good God”:
Mora Guarnido, 108.
“You’re just going to turn” and “If only I could”:
Auclair, 49.
FGL publishes piece on Zorrilla:
FGL, “Fantasía simbólica,” in OC, IV, 39–41.
FGL’s love of poetry and “a young olive tree”:
Miguel Pérez Ferrero,
Vida de Antonio Machado y Manuel
(Madrid: Espasa-Calpe [Colección Austral], 1960), 185–88.
FGL in Baeza, summer
1917:
G, I
, 162–64.
“I want a friendship”:
Lorenzo Martínez Fuset to FGL (n.d.), AFFGL.
“woman. She is lovely”:
Lorenzo Martínez Fuset to FGL (May 1, 1918), AFFGL.
“her dramas and stories”:
Lorenzo Martínez Fuset to FGL (February 14, 1918), AFFGL. The girl’s full name was Amelia Agustina González Blanco.
“And I, like the saints”:
FGL, “Oración” (May 15, 1918), in OC, IV, 367.
“Don Juan”:
Lorenzo Martínez Fuset to FGL (November 24, 1916; February 14, 1918), AFFGL.
“schoolboy scruples” and “without timidity”:
EC
, 49n.
“Let the goblet … speaking with God”:
FGL, “Oración,” in OC, IV, 368–369, trans. Maurer, introduction to FGL,
Collected Poems
, xxvii.
“under preparation”:
FGL, “San Pedro de Cardeña,”
El Diario de Burgos
, August 3, 1917, I.
FGL visit to Monasterio de Silos:
FGL,
Impresiones y paisajes
, 82–100, and OC, IV, 79–102. Friends who accompanied FGL on this visit have confirmed his account of the story (
G, I,
169).
FGL stays on in Burgos:
G, I
, 172.
“Father says for you”:
Vicenta Lorca to FGL (August 9, 1917), AFFGL.
FGL publishes two articles in Burgos,
1917:
El Diario de Burgos
, August 18 and 22, 1917, I.
“How are you going to lock”:
OC, IV, 43.
“For the cathedral’s gray towers”:
EC
, 237–38.
FGL falls in love with girl in Burgos:
G, I
, 176.
“I suppose all this”:
Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 139.
“Are you grieving”:
Lorenzo Martínez Fuset to FGL (September 7, 1917), AFFGL.
Lorca home on Acera del Casino:
For dates of residence see University of Granada Archive, School of Law records, 138–13, and School of Philosophy and Letters records, 201–20; also author interview with Vicente López.. Description of the home’s interior is taken from Mora Guarnido, 18–19;
FM
, 266; and author interview with Vicente López.
Friar Antonio:
FGL,
Fray Antonio
, in OC, IV, 738–70. FGL left behind a series of notes on San Juan Clímaco’s
La escala espiritual
(OC, IV, 868); the poet himself refers to
La escala espiritual
in his lecture on the
duende
(OC, III, 155).
FGL writes first poem:
FM
, 162; AFFGL.
“the
poet”:
Fernández-Montesinos García, “Descripción,” 21.
“I am a poet”:
Higuera Rojas, 104.
“with a word as if it were an accordion”:
As told to Francisco García Lorca by the writer and humorist Ramón Gómez de la Serna (
FM
, 64).
“mysteries of prosody”:
Auclair, 67.
FGL, on kingdoms of “poetry” and “melancholy”:
EC
, 48.
“tragic weddings”:
FGL, “Romanzas con palabras” (March 1918), in OC, IV, 317.
“the roses that smell”:
FGL, “Carnaval. Visión interior” (1918), in OC, IV, 288.
“sensualized” and “amorous ravings”:
Lorenzo Martínez Fuset to FGL (n.d.), AFFGL.
“the spring of my life” and “what a huge sorrow”:
FGL, “Aria de primavera que es casi una elegía del mes de octubre” (April 30, 1918), in OC, IV, 340–45.
“My life / wants to sink”:
FGL, “Crepúsculo,” in OC, IV, 361.
FGL’s friends respond to his plans to publish book:
Mora Guarnido, 86; Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 94–95;
FM
, 93;
G, I
, 177.
Encounter between Mora Guarnido and Federico García Rodríguez:
Mora Guarnido, 92–93.
FGL prepares manuscript:
Rafael Lozano Miralles, introduction to FGL,
Impresiones y paisajes
, ed. Rafael Lozano Miralles (Madrid: Cátedra, 1994), 33–38.
“To my great friend Antonio”:
Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 97–98.
“unnecessary trivialities”:
Aureliano del Castillo, “Libros.
Impresiones y paisajes
de Federico García Lorca,”
Defensor de Granada
, April 19, 1918, 1.
“portrait of the artist… knot his tie”:
Luis de Luna, “Comentarios.
Impresiones y paisajes,” Él Exito
(Granada), May 10, 1918, 3.
Impressions and Landscapes:
Unless otherwise
specified, all passages are taken from FGL,
Impresiones y paisajes
, in OC, IV, 50–166.
“tiny blemishes … from his work”:
Aureliano del Castillo, “Libros.
Impresiones y paisajes
de Federico García Lorca,”
Defensor de Granada
, April 19, 1918, 1.
FGL and elegy:
See, for example, Maurer, introduction to FGL,
Collected Poems
, xxiii-xxxvii, and Maurer, introduction to FGL,
Prosa inédita
, 34–38.
Berrueta’s response to
Impressions and Landscapes:
Emilio Orozco Díaz, “Federico García Lorca se gradúa de bachiller. (Notas en torno a unos años de la vida del poeta),” in
Lecturas del
27 (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 1980), 51.
“violence”:
AFFGL, in
G, I
, 185.
“dear teacher D. Martín” and “the venerable memory”:
FGL,
Impresiones y paisajes
, in OC, IV, 165.
“domestic flatteries”:
Berrueta evidently took offense to parts of an articl
e in an issue of
La Publicidad
which appeared sometime before May 3, 1918, the date of Berrueta’s letter to FGL. The offending issue has subsequently been lost, and it is therefore impossible to know what was said about Berrueta, and what role FGL may have played in such remarks.
Berrueta’s death:
University of Granada, General Library, personal record of Martin Domínguez Berrueta, nos. 673–76.
“I’ll never forgive myself”:
FGL said this to Berrueta’s son in 1932 (G, II, 182–83).
“abandon his law studies … harder to triumph”:
Lorenzo Martínez Fuset to FGL (April 9, 1918), AFFGL.
FGL drops out of school:
In 1920, one month after Berrueta’s death, FGL told Antonio Gallego Burín that he could now resume his studies at the University of Granada, because until then it had been “uncomfortable having [Berrueta] give me my exams” (
EC
, 78).
“No one has taught me as much”:
Arciniegas.
“Whenever he found himself”:
Manolo Altolaguirre said this of FGL (Morales, 207).
5. Debut: 1918–20
Childhood friend dies:
FGL, “Paz,” in OC, IV, 378–80. The friend was Vicente Mercado.
FGL broods about death:
Among the poems FGL wrote during the summer of 1918 was a work called “The Death of Ophelia” (OC, IV, 463–66). In 1918, FGL also joined a group of Rinconcillo friends in a makeshift performance of a tale about a secret treasure. Decked in a turban, cape and robe, FGL played the part of an Arab guard who is murdered. He allowed himself to be photographed both in the act of being stabbed and in death itself (Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 189–90).
Progress of World War I:
Jay Winter and Blaine Baggett,
The Great War and the Shaping of the
20th Century (New York: Penguin Studio, 1996). For Duhamel quote, see 165.
“failure of the soul”:
FGL, “Aurora del siglo XX,” in OC, IV, 459–63.
FGL attends Armistice celebration:
Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 104.
De los Ríos gives speech:
Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 103.
FGL hates militarism:
EC
, 49.
FGL avoids military service:
FM
, 61;
GM
, 46; Ayuntamiento de Granada Archive.
Political disturbances in Spain, early
1919: Mora Guarnido, 151; Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 148–51; Payne, 2; Thomas, 34; Jackson, 6.
“Viva Lenin”:
Payne, 5. The years 1918–20 were commonly referred to in Andalusia as the “Bolshevik Years” (Carr,
Modern Spain
, 90–91).
FGL and Rinconcillo denounce
caciquismo:
Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 157, 177, quoting from
La Gaceta del Sur
, Granada (February 15, 1919).
Labor crisis in Granada, February, 1919:
Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 153–56, 163–64; José Acosta Medina,
La Granada de ayer
(Granada: Imprenta Márquez, 1973), 107–9; “El caciquismo en Granada. La indignación no decrece. La persecución contra Don Fernando de los Ríos,”
El Sol
(Madrid), February 9, 1919, 1.
FGL’s response to crisis:
Rodrigo,
Memoria
,
157
.
“giant skeleton”:
OC, IV, 37–38.
“Tell your father”:
José Mora Guarnido to FGL (n.d.), AFFGL. Years later FGL gave the same advice to another local artist. “Throw your paintbrushes to the wind and get out of Granada,” he told aspiring painter José Guerrero, and Guerrero did (“Yo le debo todo a Granada,” Ideal[Granada] June 17,1985,11).
FGL decides to move to Madrid:
FM, 175–76; Lorenzo Martínez Fuset to FGL (April 9, 1918), AFFGL; Giménez Caballero;
G, I
, 182. At twenty FGL had already published a book, two poems, and several articles in the Granada press (on FGL’s early publications see
Boletín del Centro Artístico
, Zorrilla issue, [1917]; G,
I
, 137; FM, 159; Gallego Morell, Antonio Gallego Burín, 28).
“whatever he feels like doing”:
FM, 95; GM, 74.
FGL travels to Madrid, spring 1919:
Fernández Almagro, “Primer estreno”;
G, I
, 229; Río, “Federico García Lorca,” 193, 198; Mora Guarnido, 118; FM, 195.
FGL’s new clothes:
Mora Guarnido later described the “funny wardrobe” FGL initially wore in Madrid (118).
“I feel as if”:
EC
, 57.
Vicenta Lorca correspondence to Mora Guarnido and FGL:
José Mora Guarnido, “Doña Vicenta Lorca. Dolor y ventura de las madres de España,” unidentified newspaper
clipping (n.d.), Eduardo Blanco-Amor Archive, Orense; Vicenta Lorca to FGL, AFFGL.
Rinconcillo friends pave FGL’s way:
Mora Guarnido, 117–18.
“like a wedge”:
José Mora Guarnido, “El primer libro de Federico García Lorca,”
El Noticiero Granadino
, July 3, 1921, 1.
Marquina’s response to FGL:
EC
, 57.
“stupendous”:
EC
, 60.
“great poet of mist”:
FGL,
Impresiones y paisajes
, 187.
“so we can read”:
EC
, 60.
“snub-nosed”:
Juan Ramón Jiménez, “Federico García Lorca, el cárdeno granadí,” in
Españoles de tres mundos
, ed. Ricardo Gullón (Madrid: Aguilar, 1969), 344.
“young little poets”:
EC
, 60.
“Your poet came”:
Jiménez,
Selección de cartas
, 105.
“My father … just rich”:
[Residencia de Estudiantes], 120.
“dreamy-eyed”:
Alberto Jiménez Fraud, “Lorca y otros poetas,”
El Nacional
(Caracas), September 19, 1957.
FGL gives reading at Residencia:
EC
, 59; Fernández Almagro, “Primer estreno.”
“improved enormously”:
Fernández Almagro and Gallego Burín, 39.
“This business”
and
“If I don’t”:
EC
, 60–61.
FGL attends tribute for de los Ríos:
Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 165; “Homenaje a don Fernando,”
Defensor de Granada
, June 16, 1919, 1.
De los Ríos elected to Parliament:
Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 162–63,165;
El Sol
(Madrid), June 4, 1919.
A Doll’s House:
La Alhambra
(Granada) June 15 and 30, 1919, 358.
“destined to die young”:
A. Goldsborough Serrat,
Imagen humana y literaria de Gregorio Martínez Sierra
(Madrid: The author, 1965), 16.
“This poem is pure theater”:
Gibson offers a full description of this encounter, based upon his interview with Miguel Cerón Rubio, a friend of FGL’s who was also present at the re
ading (
G, I
, 254–55).
Martínez Sierra sends letters to FGL:
G, I
, 255–56.
FGL returns to Madrid, November 1919:
See Rodrigo,
Memoria
, 201–4; Auclair, 75;
EC
, 63n.
“unendurable” and “with my silent little room”:
EC, 63.
“the truth” and “Please pick them upindolent temperament”:
Francisco García Lorca to FGL (November 29, 1919), AFFGL, excerpted in
EC
, 63n.
“a firm date”:
Gregorio Martínez Sierra to FGL (January 1920), AFFGL.
“so much literary dead wood … richly primed”; Eduardo Marquina’s interest in FGL’s plays and poetry; and “hurry to ‘arrive’ … good work”:
EC
, 63.
“spiritual home”:
Auclair, 74–75; Alberto Jiménez Fraud, “Cincuentenario de la Residencia,” in
La Residencia de Estudiantes. Visita a Maquiavelo
(Barcelona: Ariel, 1972), 63.
The Residencia de Estudiantes:
[Residencia de Estudiantes]; John Crispin,
Oxford y Cambridge en Madrid. La Residencia de Estudiantes
(1910–36) y su entorno cultural (Santander: La Isla de los Ratones, 1981); José Bello, “Retrato del artista en la Residencia,”
ABC
(Madrid), January 24, 1989, xxii-xxiii; Moreno Villa,
Vida en claro
, 106; José Moreno Villa, “La Residencia,”
Residencia
I, 1 (Madrid 1926), 26; Alberto Jiménez Fraud, “Cincuentenario de la Residencia,” in
La Residencia de Estudiantes
, 62–85; Auclair, 73;
FM
, 174; EC, 101n; author interviews with Arturo Saenz de la Calzada, José Antonio Rubio Sacristán, and H. C. Rickard.
“Oxford and Cambridge”:
In 1925, on visiting the Residencia for the first time, the British hispanist John B. Trend dubbed it “Oxford and Cambridge in Madrid” (Auclair, 73).
“bathed in sunlight” and “because I have to get up”:
EC, 66.
“happy … I’m handsome”:
FGL, “El poema de mi cuarto” (April 8, 1920), AFFGL.
“Resi”:
Alberti, “Imagen primera,” 107; Cano, 46.
“whales frying”:
Saenz de la Calzada, 209.
“You get absorbed”:
EC
,
66
.
FGL’s room free of academic tomes:
Guillermo de Torre, “Presencia de Federico García Lorca,” in
La aventura estética de nuestra edad
(Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1962), 265–88.
“did practically … always on vacation”:
Alberti, “Imagen primera,” 117.
Lectures at the Residencia:
Moreno Villa,
Vida en claro
, 105–6; [Residencia de Estudiantes], 66–93.