José Díaz Fernández (Aldea del Obispo, Salamanca, 1898-Toulouse, 1941) is one of the most outstanding figures of the group of young intellectuals who emerged in the 1920s. He was introduced to Freemasonry and collaborated in various media such as El Sol, Crisol, Luz and Revista de Occidente.

This volume brings together the essential core of the writings and essays that made him one of the most relevant voices of the Republican intellectual community, with the aim of highlighting the importance of his contributions to the literature of those decades, such as his first novel, El blocao, a journalistic chronicle of the Rift War and La Venus mecanica (1929), an avant-garde book about the Primo de Rivera dictatorship.

The introductory study and selection of texts was carried out by Nigel Dennis (London, 1949-St. Andrews, Scotland, 2013), Professor of Contemporary Spanish Literature at the University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom, and author of numerous studies on the most outstanding writers of the first third of the 20th century.