Carlos Barral i Agesta (1928–1989) was a Spanish
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
, considered (along with
Jaime Gil de Biedma
Jaime Gil de Biedma y Alba (13 November 1929 – 8 January 1990) was a Spanish post-Civil War poet.
He was born in Nava de la Asunción on 13 November 1929. He stopped writing poetry some ten years before his death. He insisted that the charact ...
) to be one of the greatest poets of the so-called generation of the 1950s. He helped to establish the
Formentor Group and their literary awards the
Prix Formentor
The Prix Formentor (also known as Premio Formentor de las Letras, Formentor Literature Prize and The Formentor Prize) is an international literary award given between 1961 and 1967, and, after a long break, from 2011. In the 1960s, the Formentor Gr ...
and the
Prix International
The Prix Formentor (also known as Premio Formentor de las Letras, Formentor Literature Prize and The Formentor Prize) is an international literary award given between 1961 and 1967, and, after a long break, from 2011. In the 1960s, the Formentor Gr ...
. He was also a member of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
and an important publisher.
Biography
Carlos Barral was born in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. In 1957, he joined VÃctor Seix in the management of the publishing house
Seix Barral, which had been founded by his parents in 1911, and which became the most prestigious publishing house in the 1960s and thereafter.
Looking for a way to further open up Spanish literature Markets, Barral organised, through the Seix Barral, a series of annual meetings of publishers, novelists and critics. These 'Coloquio Internacional de Novela' ('International Colloquium of the Novel') were held in
Formentor
Cap de Formentor () is the northernmost point of Majorca, on the Formentor peninsula.
Location
Cap de Formentor is located on the northernmost point of the Balearic Island Majorca in Spain. Its highest point, ''Fumart'', is 384m above sea leve ...
on
Majorca, Spain between 1959 and 1962, paid for by international publishers. As a compromise between literary and commercial goals, two prizes were devised: the Prix International and the
Prix Formentor
The Prix Formentor (also known as Premio Formentor de las Letras, Formentor Literature Prize and The Formentor Prize) is an international literary award given between 1961 and 1967, and, after a long break, from 2011. In the 1960s, the Formentor Gr ...
, to be initiated in 1961. Prize winners included
Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
,
Beckett and
Bellow.
["The boom in Barcelona: literary modernism in Spanish and Spanish-American fiction (1950-1974)" by Mayder Dravasa](_blank)
in Volume 130 of ''Currents in comparative Romance languages and literatures'', p73. Publisher: Peter Lang, 2005
,
Barral also participated in the launching and management of the publishing house
Barral Editores in 1970.
Barral was a senator in the
Socialists' Party of Catalonia
The Socialists' Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya, PSC–PSOE official acronym) is a social-democratic political party in Catalonia, Spain, resulting from the merger of three parties: the Socialist Party of Cataloniaâ ...
-
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources:
*
*
*
* political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gove ...
for
Tarragona
Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tarr ...
in 1982 and afterwards its European Parliament representative.
He is best known for his two poetry books, ''Metropolitano, 19 historias de mi guerra civil'' ("Metropolitan, 19 Stories of My Civil War") and'' Lecciones de cosas'' ("Lessons of Things"), but his three volumes of
memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
s are also held in high esteem.
Works
*''Metropolitano'' (1957)
*''Diecinueve figuras de mi historia civil'' (1961)
*''Usuras'' (1965)
*''Figuración y fuga'' (1966)
*''Informe personal sobre el alba'' (1970)
*''Usuras y figuraciones'' (1973)
*''Años de penitencia'' (1975)
*''Los años sin excusa'' (1978)
*''Catalunya des del mar'' (1982)
*''Catalunya a vol d'ocell'' (1985)
*''Lecciones de cosas: Veinte poemas para el nieto Malcolm'' (1986)
*''Cuando las horas veloces'' (1988)
*''AntologÃa poética'' (1989)
*''Los diarios'' (1993, published posthumously)
External links
Poems from Carlos Barral
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barral, Carlos
1928 births
1989 deaths
Politicians from Barcelona
Poets from Catalonia
Socialists' Party of Catalonia politicians
Socialists' Party of Catalonia MEPs
MEPs for Spain 1987–1989
20th-century Spanish poets