Born in 1902 in Madrid, Rafael Alberti trained and worked as an artist before turning to poetry in the early twenties. He became politically active in the 1930s, producing political plays and fighting in the Spanish Civil war. As a result he was forced to flee Spain in 1939 for Argentina where he returned to painting, combining poetry and art in what he referred to as 'lyricgraphs'. He left Argentina in 1965, living in Rome till 1977 at which time he returned to post-Franco Spain. He is considered one of the most important Spanish poets of the twentieth century.

• http://www.lib.uconn.edu/Exhibits/alberti/albertibio2.htm
• http://www.rafaelalberti.es/asp/en/front.asp