León de Greiff | |
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Born | Francisco de Asís León Bogislao de Greiff Haeusler July 22, 1895 Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia |
Died | July 11, 1976 Bogotá, D. E., Colombia |
(aged 80)
Pen name | Leo le Gris, Gaspar de la Nuit |
Occupation | Poet, civil servant, diplomat. |
Language | Spanish |
Nationality | Colombian |
Period | 1915-1976 |
Genre | Poetry |
Subject | solitude, the tedium of existence, and the past |
Literary movement | Modernismo |
Notable works | Tergiversaciones (1925) |
Notable awards |
List of Awards
Order of the Polar Star – Sweden
1964 Knight Order of Boyaca – Colombia 1965 Commander National Prize of Literature – Colcultura 1970 Jorge Zalamea Medal – Calarcá 1971 Symbolic Axe of Antioquia – Medellín 1971 Star of Antioquia – Antioquia 1971 Gold Rank Civic Medal General Santander – Ministry of National Education 1971 Premio Antioquia – Coltejer 1973 Order of San Carlos – Colombia 1975 Grand Officer |
Spouse | María Teresa Matilde Bernal Nicholls (m. 1927 - † 1966) |
Children | Astrid de Greiff Bernal Boris de Greiff Bernal Hjalmar de Greiff Bernal Axel de Greiff Bernal |
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Francisco de Asís León Bogislao de Greiff Haeusler (July 22, 1895 – July 11, 1976), was a Colombian poet known for his stylistic innovations and deliberately eclectic use of obscure lexicon. Best known simply as León de Greiff, he often used different pen names. The most popular were Leo le Gris and Gaspar de la Nuit. De Greiff was one of the founders of Los Panidas, a literary and artistic group established in 1915 in the city of Medellín.
De Greiff was born on July 22, 1895 in the city of Medellín, Colombia to Luis de Greiff Obregón and Amalia Haeusler Rincón. His father was of Swedish ancestry and was the grandson of Karl Sigismund Fromholt von Greiff, a Swedish engineer and geographer who moved to Colombia in 1825 and whose family had played an active role in the abdication of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden. De Greiff's mother was of German descent, the daughter of Heinrich Häusler (a German mechanic and cabinetmaker who emigrated to Colombia in 1839). De Greiff was also the great-grandson of Francisco Antonio Obregón Muñoz, who had been Governor of Antioquia between 1836 and 1841.
Greiff was baptized on August 11, 1895 at the Church Parish of Veracruz by Fr. Pedro Alejandrino Zuluaga with the names Francisco de Asís, in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi, and León, in honour of Leo Tolstoy. His godparents were his paternal aunt Rosa Emma de Greiff Obregón and her husband Luis Vásquez Barrientos. Although of mixed Scandinavian-Germanic-Spanish-Criollo heritage, de Greiff's family had a strong Colombian identity and were part of standing mainstream Colombian society. His family background influenced many of his later works. He had four siblings, Leticia, Laura, Otto, and Olaf, and a half brother, Luis Eduardo.