José Gorostiza wrote only two books of poetry and a series of articles that were collected as Prosa (Prose, 1969); yet, he occupies a highly regarded place among twentieth-century Mexican writers. His reputation is undoubtedly tied to the great critical success of his second verse collection, Muerte sin fin (1939; translated as Death without End, 1969), which has been interpreted by myriad critics. During his lifetime he was decorated thirty times by twenty-five countries for his accomplishments as a diplomat.

Gorostiza was born on 10 November 1901 in the city of Villahermosa, a riverbank port in the state of Tabasco, Mexico. His family descended from Manuel Eduardo de Gorostiza, the nineteenth-century Mexican playwright. Gorostiza's father was a retired soldier turned businessman who moved his family to Guanajuato in 1913 and finally to Aguascalientes in 1914, where Gorostiza studied at the Instituto Científico y Literario (The Scientific and Literary Institute). Gorostiza's brother was...