Blanco Fombona, Rufino

Blanco Fombona, Rufino ro͞ofē´nō bläng´kō fōmbō´nä [key], 1874–1944, Venezuelan poet, essayist, and novelist, one of the leaders of modernismo. Active in Venezuelan political affairs, he was several times imprisoned. He lived in exile in France and Spain for a quarter of a century and contributed much toward spreading the knowledge of Spanish-American literature abroad. A prolific writer, Blanco Fombona satirized politicians, the clergy, and Yankee imperialism. His poems, such as the collection Cantos de la prisión y del destierro [songs of prison and exile] (1911), are superior to his novels. The novels include El hombre de hierro [the man of iron] (1905) and El hombre de oro (1916, tr., Man of Gold, 1920). Blanco Fombona was most distinguished in the field of the essay. Well known are La evolución política y social de Hispanomérica (1911) and El modernismo y los poetas modernistas (1929).

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