Chilean poet and novelist Vicente Huidobro was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1893, into one of the most prominent families in the country. He received his education at the Jesuit College of Santiago and in France at the Berthelot Lyceum, where he studied law. He soon changed his studies to medicine, and began writing books and became an editor of several different Chilean magazines. His first volume of poetry, "La Gruta del Silencio", scandalized Chilean critics. He traveled to Paris, and in 1916 co-founded, with Guillaume Apollinaire and Pierre Reveedy, the artistic and literary review "Nord Sud".He stayed in Paris throughout World War I but left in 1918, worn out by the wartime conditions and tribulations of Paris, and went to Madrid, Spain. When the war ended he returned to Chile. By this time he was a controversial figure in art and literary circles, with passionate defenders and just as passionate detractors.When the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1937 he returned to Madrid to offer what assistance he could to the Loyalists, and stayed there for three months. After the Loyalist defeat and the takeover of Spain by the fascist forces of Gen. Francisco Franco, he returned to Chile again, settling in Santiago.He died in Cartegena, Chile, in 1948.
