Julián del Casal

José Julián Herculano del Casal y de la Lastra (November 7, 1863 – October 21, 1893) was a poet from Havana, Cuba.

His mother, a Cuban native named Maria del Carmen de la Lastra y Owens, died in 1868 when Casal was four years old.

[2] In 1870, Julián del Casal began his education at a very formal school named El Real Colegio de Belén.

After graduating from El Real Colegio de Belén he decided to enroll in the Havana University School of Law.

[3] At the early age of fourteen, Casal began his own newspaper press with a fellow high school alumna, Arturo Mora.

His last collection, Bustos y rimas was never completed while he was alive, however it appeared in 1893 shortly after his death with the help of Casal's friend, Enrique Hernández Miyares.

Nieve was met with some critical success, although most contemporaries in Cuba felt that Julián del Casal's themes were too dark and pessimistic.

Earlier that year, he wrote an article about his colleague Rubén Darío, the famous father of Modernism, in the Cuban magazine La Habana Elegante.

His final book, Bustos y Rimas was finished by his colleague and friend Enrique Hernández Miyares and published shortly after Casal's death.