Born Augustin Nicholas Ruiz de Santayana y Borais on December 16, 1863, George Santayana was raised for eight years in Avila before moving with his family to America. He lived in Boston and was educated at Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1889 with his doctorate and joined its faculty. After the publication of his The Life of Reason (1905-06), Santayana became a full professor, but he reputedly left the university in 1912, following his mother's death, because of administrative uneasiness about his unmarried state and his enjoyment of the company of young men. For the rest of his life, centered in Rome, he wandered through Europe as a man of letters. Very early in his academic career, Santayana published several volumes of poems, but his great success came as a philosopher, critic, and novelist. He died in Rome in 1952 and is buried in the Panteon de la Obra Pia espanola in Campo Verano Cemetery.

• Santayana, George. Sonnets and Other Verses. Cambridge, Mass. and Chicago: Stone and Kimball, 1894. Enlarged edition: New York: Stone and Kimball, 1896.
• --. A Hermit of Carmel and Other Poems. New York: Scribners, 1901.
• --. Poems: Selected by the Author and Revised. New York: Scribners, 1923.
• --. The Poet's Testament: Poems and Two Plays. Ed. John Hall Wheelock and Daniel Cory. New York: Scribners, 1953.