José Manuel Caballero Bonald

Caballero was born in Calle Caballeros, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. His father was Plácido Caballero, a Cuban whose mother was of European descent and whose father was from Cantabria. His mother was Julia Bonald, a descendant of Viscount Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald, a traditional French philosopher who settled in Andalucia in the middle of the 19th century. ==Education==

Between 1936 and 1943, Caballero Bonald studied at the Marianistas de Jerez School. During the Spanish Civil War, he spent some time in the Sierra de Cádiz and in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. He read the first books that were to influence him: Jack London, Emilio Salgari, Robert Louis Stevenson, and José de Espronceda. Between 1944 and 1948, he undertook nautical studies in Cádiz, and he wrote his first poems. He made friends with members of the Cádiz magazine Platero, namely Fernando Quiñones, Pilar Paz Pasamar, Felipe Sordo Lamadrid, Serafín Pro Hesles, Julio Mariscal, José Luis Tejada, Francisco Pleguezuelo and Pedro Ardoy. Caballero Bonald spent his military service in the Milicia Naval Universitaria and spent two summers sailing in the waters of the Canary Islands, Morocco and Galicia. His military career was curtailed when he contracted a lung illness and travelled to Jerez to recuperate. Between 1949 and 1952, he studied philosophy and literature in Seville. He continued his studies of literature in Madrid and worked on the First Biennial Latin-American Art Festival. ==Career==

Around 1954 Caballero Bonald served as Secretary and later as Deputy Editor of the Papeles de Son Armadans magazine. ==Bibliography==

• Platero Poetry Award - Mendigo (1950) • Adonais Prize for Poetry (runner-up) - Las Adivinaciones (1951) • Boscán Award - Las Horas Muertas (1959) • Critics' Prize - Las Horas Muertas (1959) • Spanish Literature National Prize (2005) ==References==