“Gabriela Mistral originally Luclila Godoy Alcayaga: (1889-1957) Chilean poet. Mistral combined writing with a career as a cultural minister and diplomat, and as a professor in the U.S. Her reputation as a poet was established in 1914 when she won a prize for “Sonetos de la Muerte” (“Sonnets of Death”). Her passionate lyrics, with love of children and of the downtrodden as principal themes, are collected in such volumes as Desolacion (1922), Tala (1938), and Lagar (1954. In 1945 she became the first Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Mark's Text Terminal 