Miguel de Unamuno, a leading member of the new generation, presented himself as the intranquilizador de España, Spain’s disquieter. By means of a paradoxical style in novels, poetry, and essays, he would influence his countrymen to doubt methodically the stale ideas their culture had passed down to them while respecting the achievements of the past. Unamuno and his contemporaries formed what came to be known as the Generation of 1898. Individual approaches to this spirit of rejuvenation were diverse, but whatever their approach, most post-war writers seemed united in protest against the immediate past, and in the need for a new interpretation of history and tradition for the future.

Unamuno was a Basque from Bilbao. One of the few members of the Generation of 1898 to achieve international recognition, he was a philosopher, essayist, and poet who also wrote dramas with existential implications and a series of novels exemplifying his ideas about life and death. The themes of Spain, the human condition, religion, and the Spanish language--and the various paths towards their renovation--were his principle preoccupations. In Unamuno’s mind, after the indignities of the Spanish-American War, Spain had to be awakened from the grand illusion of itself as a great and powerful warrior-empire. Much of his work seeks the true and eternal in Spain and conveys the belief that Spaniards as a people might be rejuvenated by a return to the very basics of Spanish tradition and culture.

Miguel de Unamuno, 1864-1936.
El Cristo de Velázquez: poema. Madrid: Calpe, 1920.
PQ 6639 .N3 C72x

The Library has two copies of the first edition of Unamuno’s poem El Cristo de Velázquez, in whose creation the author combined his love of the Spanish cultural heritage with a thorough theological and philosophical learning greatly influenced by Kierkegaard.

Miguel de Unamuno, 1864-1936.
Soliloquios y conversaciones. Madrid: Biblioteca Renacimento, 1911.
PQ 6639 .N3 A6 1911

The most internationally famous member of the Generation of 1898, Unamuno analyzed his countrymen’s character in incisive essays that challenged their resistance to intellectual innovation.

Miguel de Unamuno, 1864-1936.
Ensayos por Miguel de Unamuno. Madrid: [Est. tip. de Fortanet] 1916-18.
PQ 6059 .U5 Vol. I

Volume I of Unamuno’s collected essays (1916), with a signed presentation inscription to Professor and Mrs. Herriott. J. Homer Herriott’s library was bought by UWM when he came to teach here after his retirement from the Madison campus, where he had been Associate Dean of the Graduate School.

Miguel de Unamuno, 1864-1936.
Rosario de sonetos líricos. Madrid: Imprenta española, 1911.
PQ 6639 .N3 R6 1911

First edition of Unamuno’s second book of poetry.

Miguel de Unamuno, 1864-1936.
Amor y pedagogía. Barcelona: Henrich y Ca, 1902.
PQ 6639 .N3 A8 1902

First edition of Amor y pedagogía, a novel in which Unamuno laid bare in his typically paradoxical style the deficiencies of the educational system.

Miguel de Unamuno, 1864-1936.
Del sentimiento trágico de la vida. Madrid: Renacimiento, 1912.
B 4568 .U53 D48 1912

First edition of a world-famous work of Spanish literature. The Tragic Sense of Life has had an enduring influence on American intellectuals.