León Felipe

León Felipe Camino Galicia (11 April 1884 – 17 September 1968) was an anti-fascist Spanish poet.

Biography

Felipe was born in Tábara, Zamora, Spain, while his parents were on travel. His father was a notary public, and consequently very well off. His family established in Santander. Later on, Felipe would study pharmacy and start a business as a pharmacist, mostly to amuse his father. However, literature was stronger and he elapsed with an itinerant theatre troupe. As a result, he was charged with fraud, due to the bankruptcy caused by his abandonment of business, and spent two years in jail. When he gained freedom, he started writing for literary reviews and later on his first books were published. He is one of the best contemporary poets of Spanish literature, and scholars have counted him among the generation of year 27.

He fought in the Spanish Civil War for the Spanish Republican Army against the Nationalist faction. In 1938 he left Spain and began a voluntary exile in Mexico, where he died.