Gabriel settled in Madrid and studied engineering, working for a time as a manager in his family's business.[which?

In 1946 he founded the collection of the poems "Norte" with its inseparable Amparo Gastón and since then, he abandoned his engineering profession and his family's business.

He published 'La linterna sorda' ('The lantern deaf') and reedited poems belonging prior to 1936.

In 1986 he won a national prize for Spanish literature by the Ministry of Culture, the same year when he published “Open world”.

In short, the work of Celaya is a great synthesis of almost all the concerns and styles of Spanish poetry of 20th century.