José Martiacute (1853-1895) is the most renowned political and literary figure in the history of Cuba. A poet, essayist, orator, statesman, abolitionist, and the martyred revolutionary leader of Cuba's fight for independence from Spain, Martí lived in exile in New York for most of his adult life, earning his living as a foreign correspondent. Throughout the 1880s and early 1890s, Martí's were the eyes through which much of Latin America saw the United States. His impassioned, kaleidoscopic evocations of that period in U.S. history, the assassination of James Garfield, the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, the execution of the Chicago anarchists, the lynching of the Italians in New Orleans, and much more, bring it rushing back to life. Organized chronologically, this collection begins with his early writings, including a thundering account of his political imprisonment in Cuba at age sixteen. The middle section focuses on his journalism, which offers an image of the United States in the nineteenth century, its way of life and system of government, that rivals anything written by de Tocqueville, Dickens, Trollope, or any other European commentator. Including generous selections of his poetry and private notebooks, the book concludes with his astonishing, hallucinatory final masterpiece, "War Diaries", never before translated into English.

José Martí was a Cuban revolutionary and fighter for independence who was also known worldwide as a poet and a journalist. Referred to by many as the “Apostle of the Cuban Revolution,” Marti was born in Havana in the middle of the 19th century. Martí’s skills were not merely limited to creative writing, as he was also a very well-respected philosopher, translator, professor, publisher, Freemason, and political theorist. 

Esther Allen is an essayist and translator of Spanish and French. An associate professor at Baruch College, City University of New York, she directed the work of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund from its founding in 2003 to 2010, and cofounded PEN World Voices: the New York Festival of International Literature (2004). A two-time recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowships, she was a fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library in 2009–2010. The French government has honored her as a Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres (2006). Visit her website at estherallen.com.

Roberto González Echevarría is the Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literatures at Yale University. He was awarded the 2010 National Humanities Medal by President Obama and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a number of other grants for his work as a critic of Latin American literature and culture.