José Marín Cañas was born in San José, Costa Rica in 1904. His parents were Spanish, and he was educated in both Costa Rica and Spain. He worked in various occupations, most importantly journalism, which included his doing radio broadcasts of football matches. His literary career began in 1928, at which point he won prizes for both a short story and a chronicle. His literary output includes the novels El infierno verde, about the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay, and Pedro Arnáez, which concerns El Salvador's Matanza, among other topics. He also served as director of the newspaper La Hora. He died in 1980.