This book contains 55 letters written by Octavio Paz to the Spanish poet Tomas Segovia, author of Anagorisis. A splendid testimony to friendship, literary vocation, love, concern for Mexico and a ceaseless questioning of what it means to be Mexican and Latin American, these collected letters constitute a veritable panoply of ideas and life. Mexican Nobel laureate Paz corresponded regularly with Segovia for over 10 years before the two great literary figures met in person. Their correspondence opens a revealing window on Paz, his thoughts and motivations, and the gestation of some of his works, including Piedra de Sol, Cuadrivio and Blanco. Many of the letters are in fact essays on topics as diverse as Mexicanness and Spanishness, eroticism, India, underdevelopment, surrealism, the deep significance of poetry, and the need Paz felt for a Latin American literary journal that led him to found Plural and Vuelta.