The poet and playwright Federico García Lorca is, after Cervantes, the most commanding figure in Spain’s literature. He died young, executed at 38 by nationalist forces at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

This early death has rendered him a permanent political and cultural object of desire.

During his lifetime Lorca feared what he called “stupid fame.” It’s hard to say what he would make of the flourishing industry of works (ballets, operas, films, novels, pop songs, poems) that reference and adapt his life and work. Lorca’s body was never found. This hasn’t stopped artists from figuratively pickpocketing it, hoping to nick a bit of his gravitas and spirit, and to import tragic frissons by association. His work is less read today than it is projected upon. Read more