1. The Life of Pablo Neruda
By George Chalhoub

2. Childhood
Born Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, Pablo Neruda was a world-famous Chilean poet, politician, and diplomat
He was born on July 12, 1904, in Parral, Chile to parents José del Carmen Reyes Morales, a railway employee, and Rosa Basoalto, a school teacher.
He composed his first poems when he was 10 in 1914.

3. Adolescent writings
His father was against Neruda’s interest in writing, but Nerudo continued anyway.
In 1917, when he was thirteen he published his first work – an essay “Enthusiasm and Perseverance” in a newspaper.
From he published many poems and essays in local magazines and newspapers
By 1920, he adopted his pen name Pable Neruda, after the Czech poet Jan Neruda, to avoid his father’s disapproval of his writings.

4. Late Adolescence – Early Diplomatic Years
In 1921, at 16, he moved to Santiago to study  French at the Universidad de Chile, but he spent most of his time writing.
In 1923, he published his first two book of poems Book of Twilights and Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. The latter brought him critical acclaim and is his best-known work.
In 1927, he took on a diplomatic job in Rangoon. Famous poets in Latin America were often given diplomatic positons.
He lived in many places in Southeast Asia: Singapore, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. In Indonesia, he met his first wife.
While a diplomat, a he spent a lot of time reading and experiment with different types of poetry.

5. Spanish Civil War
1933, he transferred to Madrid, Spain and had connections with many important Spanish writers
During the Spanish Civil War of 1936, Neruda started becoming very interested in politics.
He became a passionate communist because of the influence of his leftist literary colleagues and because of the execution of his close friends during the war
He wrote speeches in support of the Spanish Republic but he lost his diplomatic position because of his political life.
In 1936, he left his wife and moved to France with his mistress and future second wife
When the Spanish Republic took control of Spain, Nerudo was given a diplomatic job as a consul for Spain in France 

6. First Return to Chile and Communism
In 1943, he returned to Chile and in 1945, he was elected as a Communist Senator and officially joined the Communist Party of Chile
Neruda came to admire Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union at that time, because of how Stalin helped defeat Nazi Germany and because of Neruda's growing interest in communism and Marxism.
He wrote many poems about Stalinism in the early 40s and was given a Stalin Peace Prize in When Stalin died, Neruda even wrote an ode or poem in praise of him.
But much later in the 1950s, he came to regret his admiration of Stalin because he later realized that Stalin was a dictator and had committed crimes against humanity .
“In those days, Stalin seemed to us the conqueror who had crushed Hitler's armies."

7. Communism in Chile
In 1946, Neruda campaigned for the election of Gabriel González Videla because of his communist beliefs.
But upon winning the presidency, Gondalez turned his back on communism and started persecuting communists with his issuing of the “Law of Permanent Defense of the Democracy”.
For 2 years, Senator Neruda wrote speeches condemning Videla’s persecution of communists in Chile.
In 1948, he was threated with arrest and went into hiding for a year. In 1949, he left Chile for Argentina

8. Three-year exile
He managed to get into France by using a look-alike’s passport.
In Paris, he made a surprise visit to the World Congress of Peace Forces despite the Chilean government’s denial that Neruda could not have escaped the country.
He spent 3 years in exile with many travels to Europe and Asia. As a companion, he brought along with him a Chilean singer, Matilde Urrutia , whom he eventually married as his third wife.

9. The Second Return to Chile
By 1952, Videla’s government was weakening because of many scandals while the Chilean Socialist Party was gaining power
Neruda was now free to return to Chile (again)
The party nominated Salvador Allende who requested that Neruda would help him in his campaign
For the next 21 years, he continued writing about different public and private issues
He spent the rest of his life in Chile except for his frequent international trips

10. Life after Returning to Chile
By the 1950s, Neruda was world-famous for his poetry which were translated into many languages
He was still politically active in his later life and was a prestigious leftwing intellectual and writer.
He was a candidate for the 1964 Nobrl Prize but didn’t win
But he did win the 1971 Novel Prize, although his winning wasn’t easy because of his past pro-Stalin writings
In 1970 he was nominated as a candidate for the Chilean presidency but he gave his support to Allende
Allende won and made Neruda his ambassador to France from 1970 to 1972, his last diplomatic job

11. Last Years
In 1973, Neruda was diagnosed with prostate cancer and Allende’s democratic government was collapsing because of a military coup d'état on September 11
His long-standing hopes for a communist Chile were dying out.
During the coup, his house was searched by the military. Neruda said one of his famous quotations: "Look around—there's only one thing of danger for you here—poetry
On September 23, he died of heart failure

12. Immediately after Death
His funeral took place with a massive police presence because the new government didn’t want his funeral to be a public event.
But the death of Neruda pushed the thousands of grieving mourners to resist against the new regime.
In 1974, Neruda’s widow Matilda Urrutia compiled and edited his writings and published his memoirs I Confess I Have Lived
These actions brought Urrutia into conflict with the new government because of Neruda’s writings were still influencing the people of Chile