His biographers stress his active participation in the editorial board of the magazine Laye (1950–1954), where he held a critical position towards contemporary Spanish literature, and the first publication of an article collection Notas sobre literatura española contemporánea (Notes on contemporary Spanish literature, 1955).

His willingness for renewal and the discovery of the European literary critique through the Laye group led him to write La hora del lector (The reader's hour, 1957).

As he wanted to make known a group of young poets that had started publishing in Laye (Carlos Barral, Jaime Gil de Biedma and José Agustín Goytisolo), he published the polemic anthology Veinte años de poesía española (20 years of Spanish poetry, 1960) that postulated historic realism.

Ten years later a new anthology, Nueve novísimos poetas españoles (Nine brand-new Spanish poets, 1970), marked a change to new poetic tendencies after realism.

His work as a critic during that time centered on two important books that are still considered works of reference: the structuralist reading of the poetry by Espriu —Iniciació a la poesia de Salvador Espriu (Initiation to Salvador Espriu's poetry, 1971)— and the analysis of the narrative richness of Josep Pla's work, Josep Pla o la raó narrativa (Josep Pla or narrative reason, 1978).