The Peruvian poet César Vallejo (1892–1938) is an enigmatic figure. He has been at the centre of some of the fiercest literary debates in Latin America. To this day, scholars argue over the meaning of his work, his politics, his religion, even what the weather was like during his funeral. He was not particularly famous during his lifetime, but he became enormously famous after his death – to such an extent that there are many who argue he is Latin America's most important poet. There are remarkably few photographs of him considering that he lived in the twentieth century. He is known to have given only one published interview. There is no extant recording of his voice, and while some film footage of him when he went to the Writers' Congress in Spain in June 1937 has recently emerged, it offers only fleeting images of his presence there. Despite the wealth of critical studies on Vallejo's work, there has, to date, been no biography published on his whole life, and this book is designed to fill that gap.

This literary biography is the first biography to focus on Vallejo's life from cradle to tomb. There are good biographies which focus on certain sections of Vallejo's life – Juan Espejo Asturrizaga for his Trujillo years, Georgette de Vallejo and Juan Domingo Córdoba Vargas for the Paris period – but none which brings everything together in one book. Some of these works are problematic; it is clear, for example, that Espejo Asturrizaga was economical with the truth when dealing with specific events of Vallejo's life, particularly his relationship with women.