The Intellectual and Cultural Worlds of Rubn Daro

Nicaraguan poet Rubn Daro (1867-1916) has had a foundational influence on virtually all Spanish-language writers and poets of the twentieth century and beyond. Yet, while he is a household name among Hispano-phone readers, the seminal modernista remains virtually unknown to an English readership. This book examines the writings of Rubn Daro as both poet and chronicler, as he renovates language drawing lessons from ancient mythologies to embrace the ideal of "art for arts sake," all the while opposing United States aggression in the hemisphere along with the pseudo-Bohemian European bourgeoisie in poetry and prose at the cusp of the Great War.