Venezuelan poet, essayist and novelist, one of the leaders of Modernismo.  Active in Venezuelan political affairs, he lived exiliated many years in Europe and contributed to spread the knowledge of Spanish American literature abroad.  His poems, as the collection “Cantos de la Prisión y del Destierro” are better than his novels.  Among his novels are “El Hombre de Hierro” and “El Hombre de Oro.”  Also a politician, during the II Spanish Republic, he was Governator of the Provinces of Almería (1932) and Navarra (1933.) (bio by: 380W)