Victoriano Crémer (18 December 1906 – 27 June 2009) was a Spanish poet, journalist and "official chronicler of the city of

León, Spain León (; ) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the province of León, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León, in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. It has a population of 124,303 (2019), ...

." The Latin American Herald Tribune described Cremer as Spain's "longest lived poet" in 2009. Crémer, born in

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of t ...

, co-founded the

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

Espadaña Espadaña is a sparsely populated village and municipality in the province of Salamanca, western Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile-Leon. It is located from the provincial capital city of Salamanca and has a population of 32 peo ...

'' (''Bell Tower'') with Gonzalez de Lama and

Eugenio de Nora Eugenio is an Italian and Spanish masculine given name deriving from the Greek language, Greek 'wiktionary:Eugene, Eugene'. The name is Eugénio in Portuguese and Eugênio in Brazilian Portuguese. The name's translated literal meaning is well born ...

during the height of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. The magazine published work by poets including

Blas de Otero Blas de Otero (15 March 191629 June 1979) was a Spanish people, Spanish poet, associated with the Social poetry movementDebicki, Andrew P''Spanish Poetry of the Twentieth Century: Modernity and Beyond'', p. 74.University Press of Kentucky, 1994. ...

César Vallejo César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza (March 16, 1892 – April 15, 1938) was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only two books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators ...

and

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

. Some of Crémer's best known works include ''Tiempo de Soledad'' (''Time of Solitude''), ''Nuevos Cantos de Vida y Esperanza'' (''New Songs of Life and Hope''), and ''Libro de Cain'' (''The Book of Cain''). Crémer won a

Jaime Gil de Biedma Jaime Gil de Biedma y Alba (13 November 1929 – 8 January 1990) was a Spanish post-Civil War poet. He was born in Nava de la Asunción on 13 November 1929. He stopped writing poetry some ten years before his death. He insisted that the charact ...

Poetry Prize in 2008 for his writing, ''El Ultimo Jinete'' (''The Last Horseman''). Crémer was admitted to a hospital in León in June 2009. He died in

, on 27 June 2009, due to complications of old age at the age of 102.

Spanish Prime Minister The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government ( es, link=no, Presidente del Gobierno), is the head of government of Spain. The office was established in its current form by the Constitution of 1978 and it was first regula ...

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (; born 4 August 1960) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections ...

, himself a resident of León, issued a condolence message in which he expressed "deep sorrow" and applauded Cremer whose

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

guided Spain during "some very tough times in our history." Zapatero called Crémer a "cultural activist."

References

1906 births 2009 deaths People from Burgos People from León, Spain Spanish centenarians Men centenarians Spanish male poets 20th-century Spanish poets 20th-century Spanish journalists {{Spain-journalist-stub