Naik, in the anthology A young man at war). Beginnings as a writer His first published literature was a poem, El soneto el gusano (The Sonnet the Worm), that in 1917, appeared in the magazine, Los Diez (The Ten). He belonged to a group four years later, in 1921, and during his time in Mendoza formed a theater company. He published a book of poems under the name, "Poetic" in the magazine, Ideas and figures. The following year, he received his first award with his story, La laguna (The Lake), which won the second prize in the contest for the Buenos Aires magazine, La Montaña (The Mountain). His first book of short stories, Hombres del sur (Men of the South), appeared in 1926. In 1928, the same year his mother died, he was hired as a librarian in the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile (The National Library of Chile). His first wife, Maria, was a professor and poet. The death of his wife would be the inspiration for his poem, Deshecha Rosa (Lost Rose). The following year, his second story book, El delincuente (The offender), came out which contained the famous, El vaso de leche, (The Glass of Milk). His first novel, Lanchas en la bahía (Boats in the Bay), which he wrote in 1930, came out in 1932. In 1936, he published his second novel, La Ciudad de los Césares (The City of the Caesars), and, after the death of his wife, he took over as director of the University of Chile's printing press. Years later, Rojas would declare in an interview his regret for writing this novel, criticizing it for not only being bad, but also extremely fictional. "The writer is the son of his experience. A writer without experience is an unimaginable being", he insisted. Works Novels Lanchas en la bahía, 1932 La ciudad de los Césares, 1936 Hijo de ladrón, 1951 Mejor que el vino, 1958 Punta de rieles, 1960 Sombras contra el muro, 1964 La oscura vida radiante, 1971 Tales Hombres del Sur, 1926 El Delincuente, 1929 El Bonete Maulino, 1943 Imágenes de infancia, 1955 El vaso de leche, 1927 Poems Poéticas, 1921 Tonada del transeúnte, 1927 Travesía, 1934 Desecha rosa, 1954 Essays De la poesía a la revolución, 1938 José Joaquin Vallejo, 1942 Chile:cinco navegantes y un astrónomo, 1956 Los costumbristas chilenos, 1957 El árbol siempre verde, 1960 Antología autobiográfica, 1962 Esencias del pais chileno,