Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 - September 23, 1973) was the pen name of the Chilean writer Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto.
Considered one of the greatest Spanish-language poets of the 20th century, Neruda was a prolific writer, his output ranging from erotically charged love poems, surrealist poems, historical epics, and overtly political poems, to poems on common things, like nature and the sea. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez has called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language". In 1971, Neruda was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
During his lifetime, Neruda was renowned for his strong political beliefs. An outspoken communist, he briefly served as a senator for the Communist Party of Chile in the Chilean Congress before being forced into exile.
Neruda's pen name was derived from Czech writer and poet Jan Neruda; it later became his legal name.
