LEZAMA LIMA, JOS

born Dec. 19, 1910, Havana, Cuba died Aug. 9, 1976, Havana poet, novelist, and essayist whose writing profoundly influenced other Cuban writers. After studying law in Havana, Lezama became one of the founders and supporters of Verbum (1937) and other literary reviews, and he was leader of the literary group associated with Orgenes (194456). They published the work of a number of excellent young poets who revolutionized Cuban letters. His solid foundation in the Spanish classics of the Golden Age and his knowledge of the French Symbolists greatly influenced his early work. Muerte de Narciso (1937; Death of Narcissus), Lezama's first book of poems, reveals his vast cultural background. Enemigo rumor (1941; Enemy Rumor), in addition to aesthetic preoccupations about the essence of poetry, reveals the poet's belief that the act of creation is laden with religious and metaphysical possibilities. In Aventuras sigilosas (1945; Silent Adventures), he recreates incidents of his youth and treats his mother's powerful influence on his artistic and cultural growth after his father's death in 1919. His novel Paradiso (1966) has a similar tone and content. It is considered to be his masterpiece and reaffirms faith in his art and in himself. The poems in La fijeza (1949; Stability) are an attempt to recapture his past experiences. Analecta del reloj (1953; Selected Work of the Clock), a collection of essays, is notable for Las imgenes posibles (Possible Images), which gives his poetic credo. La expresin americana (1957) includes essays that attempt to decipher the essence of Latin-American reality. His Tratados en la Habana (Treatises on Havana) was published in 1958, and in 1959 Fidel Castro named him director of the Department of Literature and Publications of the National Council of Culture.