Patricia A. Billingsley

A groundbreaking reassessment of the relationship between Federico García Lorca and American poet Philip Cummings and its impact on the poems in Lorcas landmark collection, Poet in New York.In August 1929, Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca left New York City to spend ten days with his friend and lover Philip Cummings at a lakeside cottage in northern Vermont. Lorca in Vermont tells the story of two young men with mismatched goals and expectations: Lorca, already well established in his career, who sought a sustained romantic relationship with another man, and Cummings, a new college graduate eight years his junior, who had no interest in long-term commitment or in challenging social conventions. Based on over a decade of research, Lorca in Vermont explores the full course of Lorcas relationship with Cummings, an affair that spanned three years and two continents. Combining unique access to primary sources, extensive original research, and a fresh analysis of published sources, the book describes not only the pairs history as a couple but also the suppression of their relationship by Lorca scholars after the poets tragic death in 1936. Perhaps most importantly, it reveals previously unrecognized links between the disappointment and loss Lorca experienced in his relationship with Cummings and at least eight of the poems in his landmark collection Poet in New York, a work that has long intrigued and inspired other writers. The book brilliantly blends compelling new findings and an engaging narrative style in a page-turning tale that is a must read for anyone interested in Lorca and his legacy.

La verdadera historia de amor oculta tras Poeta en Nueva York. En agosto de 1929, Federico García Lorca interrumpe su estancia en Nueva York y viaja al norte de Vermont para pasar diez días en una cabaña junto al lago Eden. Alli le espera un joven estadounidense llamado Philip Cummings, profesor de idiomas a quien habia conocido un año antes en Madrid y con el cual mantuvo una relacion amorosa. No obstante, en este reencuentro se manifiestan dos expectativas distintas: la del poeta ya consagrado, que aspira a una relacion duradera, y la de un joven poco dispuesto a desafiar las convenciones sociales de la conservadora sociedad estadounidense. Nadie, hasta ahora, sabia realmente como este momento marcaria para siempre la vida del poeta. Lorca en Vermont, fruto de mas de una decada de investigacion y un cuidadoso trabajo con fuentes de primera mano, reconstruye una relacion que se extendio durante tres años y abarco dos continentes, y examina tanto su intimidad como el posterior silenciamiento critico tras el asesinato del poeta en 1936. Asimismo, propone una nueva lectura de varios poemas de Poeta en Nueva York, al vincular la experiencia afectiva de Lorca con algunas de las partes mas significativas de esta obra. El resultado es un estudio solido y de prosa clara que amplia nuestra comprension de un episodio desconocido hasta ahora pero decisivo en la vida del autor, e integra en su legado una dimension intima que enriquece la interpretacion de su poemario mas emblematico.