Alfonso Reyes

Alfonso Reyes was a Mexican writer, philosopher and diplomat, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times and has been acclaimed as one of the greatest authors in Spanish language. He served as ambassador of Mexico to Argentina and Brazil, and as a cultural representative of Mexico at various international conferences. He was also a founder of the Ateneo de la Juventud, a group of young intellectuals who promoted new cultural and aesthetic ideals and educational reform in Mexico. He wrote poetry, essays, short stories, literary criticism, and translations, covering a wide range of topics and genres. He was especially interested in classical Greek literature and Spanish literature of the Golden Age. He also translated English and French works into Spanish and wrote a theory of literature. He was a prolific and versatile writer, who published more than 50 books and hundreds of articles. He was also a scholar and educator, who taught at the Centro de Estudios Históricos in Madrid, the La Casa de España, the El Colegio de México, the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua, and the El Colegio Nacional. He was honored with several awards and distinctions, such as the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes (Literature & Linguistics) and honorary doctorates from Princeton University, La Sorbonne, and the University of California Berkeley. He died of a heart attack in Mexico City in 1959, and his remains were transferred to the Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres in 1982.