by Gustavo Adolfo Becquer

Born in Seville in 1836, Gustavo Adolfo Becquer was the son of painter Jose Dominguez Becquer, who died when Gustavo was five. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by his godmother, a pious woman who apparently hoped he would be a merchant but nonetheless provided him with a good education. At 17, Becquer boarded a train to Madrid in pursuit of a literary career. He founded various publications, but all of them failed. Despite these setbacks, Becquer managed to eke out an existence as a freelance journalist and translator. Between 1860-68, he contributed poems and stories to the newspaper El Contemporáneo and worked as a government censor. In 1868 Becquer produced an edition of his best pieces, collected under the title Book of the Sparrows (Libro de los gorriones), purchased by the Prime Minister González Bravo (sometimes...