Machado, Antonio (1875–1939)

Spanish poet and dramatist. He was inspired by the Castilian countryside in his lyric verse, collected in Soledades/Solitudes (1902) – enlarged as Soledades, galerías y otros poemas/Solitudes, Galleries and Other Poems (1907) – and Campos de Castilla/Countryside of Castile (1912), which contains some of his finest work. His verse is nostalgic and full of anguish at the sense of time passing, yet also expresses hope for the future.

Born in Seville, Machado came from an agnostic family, and moved to Madrid 1900, where he began to compose Soledades. In 1907 he moved to Soria to take up a teaching position. Two important influences operated on him in Soria: the landscape, depopulated and full of relics of Spain's imperial past; and his marriage 1909 to Leonor, who died of tuberculosis 1912. After publishing Campos de Castilla his interest turned to philosophical matters and to literary criticism. In the collection of prose articles Juan de Mairena 1937 and Los complementarios published posthumously 1957, he elaborates a criticism of modern philosophy and art based on an appeal for community and solidarity against excessive individualism. This emphasis led him in the direction of socialism, and he collaborated with the left-wing elements in the Republic against General Franco. He died in a refugee camp in Collioure, southern France.