Although much has been written about Pablo Neruda and Jorge Carrera Andrade independent of one another, this dissertation is meant to investigate their lives and literary careers as two associated realms that, as opposed to being isolated, were intertwined and connected. This connectedness reveals itself in their poetry and results in many striking similarities in the poets’ literary creation. Furthermore, this dissertation examines the personal correspondence that the poets exchanged and therefore the epistolary genre. The poets’ personal letters are analyzed as literary texts alongside a discussion of the genre.

In chapter one, I briefly introduce this study examining the dual meaning of correspondence that will be addressed in this dissertation. In the second chapter, I carefully examine the lives of Neruda and Carrera Andrade, revealing the shocking similarities that exist among the two writers. The third chapter is an examination of the poets’ literary production and the way that their common themes manifest themselves in their poems. The fourth chapter is an analysis of the personal correspondence of the two poets that I found at the University of New York at Stony Brook Special Collections Department. The seven letters that I analyze reveal the development of the major themes in the men’s poetry and uncover the poets’ personal relationship, proving that in addition to having very similar lives and works, the two men did influence one another. The letters also serve as literary texts that warrant the examination of the critic.