Fernando Alegria, born September 16, 1918 in Santiago, Chile, to Santiago Alegria Toro and Julia Alfaro, is a poet, novelist and educator. He married Carmen Letona Melendez on Jan. 29, 1943. Together they had four children: Carmen, Daniel, Andres, and Isabel.

Alegria received his M.A. from Bowling Green State University in 1941 and his Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in 1947. He taught as a professor at the University of Chile, 1939; as an instructor at Bowling Green State University, 1940-1941; as an instructor, 1947-1949, as an assistant professor, 1949-1955, as an associate professor, 1955-1963, and as a professor, 1964-1967 at University of California at Berkeley; and as a professor at Stanford University from 1967-1998.

From 1970 through 1973, Alegria served as cultural attach? from the government of Salvador Allende to the United States, using his home in Berkeley, California as his base of operations in this capacity.

Alegria's organizational affiliations include the Instituto Internacional de Literature Iberoamericana ; the American Association of Teachers of Spanish; and the Sociedad de Escritores.

He was a Guggenheim Fellow, 1947-1948; he won the Latin American Prize of Literature, 1943; as well as the Premio Atenea and Premio Municipal.

He published extensively; his works include Recabarren, 1938; Ideas esteticas de la poesia moderna, 1939; Ensayo sobre cinco temas de Thomas Mann, 1949; Walt Whitman en Hispanoamerica, 1954; Caballo de copas, 1957; My Horse Gonzales, 1964; Historia de la novela hispanoamericana, 1965; Genio y figura de Gabriela Mistral, 1966; Los dias contados, 1968; Los mejores cuentos de Fernando Alegria, 1968; Amerika, 1970; Coral de Guerra, 1979; El Paso de los gansos, 1980; The Chilean Spring, 1980.