José Martí: A Revolutionary Life (University of Texas Press), by Alfred J. López, is the first major biography of the Cuban writer and national hero to be published in English. A revolutionary and political thinker, Martí (1853–1895) is revered today as an “apostle of freedom” both in Cuba and in Cuban exile communities. Drawing on groundbreaking research and never veering into hagiography, this new study gives readers a sweeping, lively, clear-eyed portrait of Martí through his many travels and exiles, concluding with his famous death on the battlefield.