In the prologue to his Ese sol del mundo moral: Para una historia de la eticidad cubana (That Sun from the Moral World: Toward a History of Cuban Ethics, 1975) Cintio Vitier defines himself as an "aspirante vitalicio a poeta y a cristiano" (a lifelong candidate to becoming a poet and a Christian). A Catholic intellectual, he has devoted his life to poetry, as exemplified by his many titles, prizes, and other literary distinctions, such as the 1989 Cuban National Poetry Prize. In his long career as poet and literary critic Vitier has published many volumes of poetry, essays, and novels and has written and edited some pivotal works on Cuban literature, including his 1948 anthology of the Orígenes poets, Diez poetas cubanos: 1937-1947 (Ten Cuban Poets: 1937-1947), and Lo cubano en la poesía (Cubanness in Poetry, 1958), a study key to understanding both Cuban poetry and the...