Brull, Mariano (1891–1956)

Mariano Brull (b. 24 February 1891; d. 6 August 1956), Cuban poet. Brull was born in Camagüey Province but spent his childhood in Spain. He returned to Cuba as an adolescent and began publishing his early poems. In 1913 he received a law degree from the University of Havana and worked as a lawyer until 1917, when he obtained a diplomatic post in Washington, D.C. He later served in Cuba's embassies in Peru, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, France, Italy, Canada, and Uruguay. Brull was published in several key literary magazines, including Clavileño and the legendary Orígenes, founded by José Lezama Lima. One of the most influential poets of the first decades of this century, he is well known for his jitanjáforas, poems constructed with words invented for the beauty of their sound and their rhythm, as the term jitanjáfora itself, the title of one of those poems. Well-known poets and critics of his time acclaimed Brull's poetry, among them Paul Valéry, Alfonso Reyes, Gastón Baquero, Pedro Henríquez Ureña, and Cintio Vitier, and he exerted great influence upon the following generation of Cuban poets. Among his works are La casa del silencio: Antología de su obra, 1916–1954 (1976) and Una antología de poesía cubana (1984).

See alsoLiterature: Spanish America .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Additional Bibliography

Larraga, Ricardo. Mariano Brull y la poesía pura en Cuba. Miami: Ediciones Universal, 1994.

Saínz, Enrique. Indagaciones. La Habana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1998.

                                        Roberto Valero