Unamuno, Miguel de, << `oo` nuh MOO noh, mee GEHL deh >> (1864-1936), was a Spanish philosophical essayist, poet, novelist, and dramatist. The leading humanist of modern Spain, he argued that the individual—not civilization, society, or culture—was “the subject and supreme object of all thought.”
Unamuno’s best-known work, The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), examines the conflict between faith and reason from the Renaissance to the 1900’s. In this book, the author evaluates the significance of will, the desire for immortality, and the search for love in human history. Unamuno’s study of Spanish culture in Concerning Traditionalism (1895) helped stimulate the Spanish intellectual revival known as the Generation of 1898. His finest poem is the long meditation called The Christ of Velázquez (1920). His best novel, Mist (1914), examines the mysteries of human existence. The novel Saint Emmanual Bueno, Martyr (1931) portrays the agony of a priest who doubts the existence of life after death.
Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was born on Sept. 29, 1864, in Bilbao. He was appointed professor of Greek at the University of Salamanca in 1891 and rector of the university in 1900. In addition to his many books, Unamuno wrote more than 3,000 short essays and articles. A bold political critic, he incurred the hostility of four successive Spanish governments. He died on Dec. 31, 1936.
