Antonio Machado will symbolically enter the RAE almost a century late.

Antonio Machado was elected to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in 1927, but he never delivered his inaugural address. Almost a century later , the Academy will hold a symbolic and commemorative ceremony, during which the unfinished speech by the poet from Campos de Castilla will be read .

A new facsimile from the RAE is now available: "Soledades" by Antonio Machado. This first edition from 1903, which is part of the Academy's Facsimile Editions collection, is preserved in the Dámaso Alonso legacy of the corporation: https://t.co/RqH9x0LplV . pic.twitter.com/HjI6NMHfcp

— RAE (@RAEinforma) April 8, 2024

On April 29, actor José Sacristán will be in charge of reading the document, which will be answered with a text by José Martínez Ruiz, Azorín , spoken by academic and playwright Juan Mayorga, according to the Royal Spanish Academy.

Joan Manuel Serrat will offer a recital of poems by Antonio Machado to close the event, which will also allow for the exhibition of The Machados: Family Portrait in Madrid.

Antonio Machado did not take possession of the V seat , which had been vacated by Miguel Echegaray, "due to the political circumstances of those years ," according to the RAE on its website, although there may have been other factors.

The truth is that the poet took a while to get around to writing, and when he did, he ended up leaving it unfinished in 1931.

In a letter to Miguel de Unamuno, the Sevillian writer expressed his reservations: "It is an honor to which I never aspired; I would almost dare to say that I aspired to never have it , but God gives a handkerchief to those who have no nose."

In his speech, published in the Revista Hispánica Moderna (New York, XV, 1949), Machado says that he does not believe he has "the specific gifts" of an academic . The poet Ángel González, who dedicated his own acceptance speech to him in 1997 ('The Other Solitudes of Antonio Machado'), recalled Machado's "lack of sympathy" for academic matters.

His brother Manuel Machado , however, did join the RAE . He was elected to the "N" chair in January 1938, wrote his inaugural speech in record time, entitled "A few verses, a soul, and an era," and read it on February 19 of that year.

Antonio Machado went into exile in January 1939 due to the advance of Franco's troops. Impoverished and ill, he died a month later in the small French town of Collioure, where his tomb is preserved.

In a pocket of his coat he kept his last verse: "These blue days and this childhood sun."