Libro de la guerra

The civil war and the first years of the Franco dictatorship crossed the life and work of Miguel Hernández. For its evident reflection in what he wrote -as a result of the coup d'état he proposed a shift in his work, until then outside of political motivations- and for its consequences in his own biography: his affiliation to the PCE in the initial days of the war, his appointment as political commissar and his active presence on various fronts, his trip to the USSR and later, when the dictatorship began, his arrest and conviction, his confinement in several prisons and his death from tuberculosis in the Alicante prison. Miguel Hernández spent the summer of 1936 in his native Orihuela. He worked in Madrid with José María de Cossío, collaborating on the writer's publishing projects, and had managed to enter the cultural circles of the time: he had just published his book of poems El rayo que no cesa, he had the friendship of Vicente Aleixandre and the admiration of Juan Ramón Jiménez. The war transformed his writing: he maintained dialogue with the classics of the Golden Age -in his poems and plays he did not "lower" the linguistic demands- but he opened up to other matters, prioritized what he considered urgent, and began writing. writing opinion articles and journalistic chronicles. Book of War is an anthology that, based on Miguel Hernández's own work (poetry, stories, theater) and other personal texts directly or implicitly related to the civil war, such as letters, documents and photographs, explores the profound ideological and literary transformation that the poet suffered as the conflict gained ground in Spain. The meticulous editing and prologue have been carried out by the writer, poet and editor Elena Medel.