José Lezama Lima is not only one of Cuba's most important writers to date but is also recognized among the most distinctive Latin American poets and novelists of the twentieth century. Although he cultivated all genres except drama, poetry interested him the most. This interest explains why the subject of poetry predominates everywhere in his essays, fictional works, lectures, interviews, and even in the letters that he wrote to his friends. It is not an exaggeration to say that Lezama Lima's life was almost exclusively dedicated to literature and to the development of an elaborated poetic system. To this effect, Lezama Lima himself used to say that the events of his biography were so few that they could all be connected to his literary works.

Despite his untiring dedication to literature, for many years Lezama Lima was only known by a small group within Cuba's intelligentsia. His...