Ángel Crespo

Who was Ángel Crespo?

Ángel Crespo was born in 1926 in Alcolea de Calatrava, Province of Ciudad Real and died in 1995 in Barcelona. He was one of Spain's most significant poets and translators of the second half of the twentieth century.

Crespo was the author of over thirty books of poetry. He also published over twenty books of translations and numerous works of literary criticism. One of Spain's most prestigious translation prizes, the Premio de Traducción Ángel Crespo, was named after him.

Crespo was raised in the La Mancha region of Spain. Early in his career, he was associated with Carlos Edmundo de Ory and the Postism literary movement. He was labeled a traitor under Spain’s Franco regime for signing a petition to protest the torture of miners in Asturias. Afterwards, he participated in clandestine antigovernment activities until he was eventually driven into exile. He lived with his wife, translator and professor Pilar Gómez Bedate, in various places including Sweden and Puerto Rico before returning to Spain in the 1980s.