Zorrilla de San Martín, Juan

Born Dec. 28, 1855, in Montevideo; died there Nov. 3,1931. Uruguayan writer.

Zorrilla, after becoming a diplomat in 1877, worked as a journalist from 1878 to 1886 and was a deputy to parliament. A representative of late romantic poetry, he is known for his collections of patriotic narrative poems Notes on a Hymn (1877) and National Tradition (1879). His novel in verse Tabaré (1888; revised edition, 1923) deals with the Spanish conquest of Uruguay. Zorrilla also wrote The Epic of Artigas (vols. 1–2, 1910), a biographical novel of Uruguay’s national hero, as well as the pacifist essay “Sermon on Peace” (1924).