Jose Yglesias (1919-1955) was born in the Ybor City section of Tampa, Florida, and was of Cuban and Spanish descent. His father was from Galicia. He moved to New York City in 1937 and served in the United States Navy during World War II. He studied at Black Mountain College and was a film critic for the Communist Party USA newspaper, The Daily Worker. He lived in New York City and Brooklin, Maine. From 1953 to 1963 he held an executive position at the pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp and Dohme.
He published fifteen books and wrote articles for The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine and other periodicals. In 1968, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.
Yglesias was the patriarch of a writing family, which in addition to his son, the novelist and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias, included his wife, Helen Yglesias, a novelist and editor, as well as his grandsons: blogger and author Matthew Yglesias, and Nicholas Yglesias, a novelist.
