Josep Maria de Sagarra

Josep Maria de Sagarra
Born	Josep Maria de Sagarra i de Castellarnau 5 March 1894(1894-03-05)5 March 1894 Barcelona, Spain
Died	27 September 1961(1961-09-27) (aged 67) Barcelona, Spain
Resting place	Montjuïc Cemetery
Occupation	Writer, translator, playwright
Language	Catalan, Spanish
Nationality	Catalan
Genre	Novel

Josep Maria de Sagarra i de Castellarnau (Barcelona, 5 March 1894 – 27 September 1961) was a Spanish writer.

Biography

It was born in Barcelona in 1894, in the breast of a family of the Catalan nobility being son of the historian and sigilógrafo Fernando Sagarra i of Ciscar. He studied highschool with the Jesuits and Law at the University of Barcelona, initially with the purpose of entering in the diplomatic career. However he quickly decided to become a writer and at the age of 18 years won a prize of poetry in the Floral Games. He became a full time journalist in whose work was correspondent in Germany and theatrical critic.

However his main work developed in the field of the literature, especially in theatre and poetry, that he wrote always in Catalan. He collaborated with assiduity in the press, especially in La publicidad and Mirador. It suits to remark also his work as a translator: the Divine comedy of Dante, and the theatre of Shakespeare, Molière and Gogol. Part of his poetry was inspired by the popular chansonnier and by well known ancient legends, what turned him into a very popular poet that, in many respects, occupied the place that had left empty Frederic Soler, Verdaguer, Guimerà or Maragall.

In 1955 he obtained the National Prize of Theatre by La Ferida Luminosa, whose version in Spanish was made by José María Pemán. In the last years of life he was member of the Institute of Catalan Studies, the Academy of the Good Letters, General Council of Authors of Spain and the Board of the Big Cross of Alfonso X the Wise person. After long illness, he died in Barcelona the 27 September 1961, was laid to rest on the Cemetery of Montjuïc.

A good part of his works have been translated to several tongues and some have been carried to the cinema (El cafè de la Marina and La herida luminosa). Lluís Llach, Guillermina Motta and Ovidi Montllor, among others, his poems were set to music.

Main works

Poetry

• Primer llibre de poemes (1914)
• El Mal Caçador (1916)
• Cançons d'abril i de novembre, (1918)
• Cançons de taverna i d'oblit, (1922)
• Cançons de rem i de vela, (1923)
• Cançons de totes les hores, (1925)
• El comte Arnau, (1928), long poem in heroic verse
• La rosa de cristall, (1933)
• Àncores i estrelles, (1936)
• Entre l'equador i els tròpics, (1938)
• El poema de Montserrat, (1950)
• Divina Comèdia, traducción de Dante, (1950)

Novel

• Paulina Buxareu, (1919)
• All i salobre, (1929)
• Vida privada, (1932) Award winner Joan Crexells

Anthologies of newspaper articles

• Cafè, copa i puro, (1929)
• L'aperitiu, (1937) o (1946)
• Cola de gallo, (1959), in Spanish
• Memòries, (1954)
• "L'ànima de les coses" (2001)
• "El perfum dels dies" (2004)

Theatre

• Rondalla d'esparvers (1918)
• L'estudiant i la pubilla (1921)
• El jardinet de l'amor (1922)
• Dijous Sant (1923)
• El foc de les ginesteres (1923)
• Fidelitat (1925)
• La Llúcia i la Ramoneta, (1928), comedy
• Les llàgrimes de l'Angelina, (1928), comedy
• La Rambla de les floristes, (1935)
• Judit, (1929)
• Marçal Prior, (1926)
• La filla del Carmesí, (1929)
• La corona d'espines, (2000)
• L'Hostal de la Glòria, (1931)
• El cafè de la Marina, (1933)
• La Plaça de Sant Joan, (1934)
• Reina, (1935)
• El prestigi dels morts, (1946)
• La fortuna de Sílvia, (1947)
• Galatea, (1948)
• L'hereu i la forastera, (1949)
• Les vinyes del Priorat, (1950)
• L'alcova vermella, (1952)
• La herida luminosa, (1954)
• La paraula de foc, (1955)
• El senyor Perramon,translated from Molière, (1960)
• El fiscal Requesens,translated from Gogol, (1961)

Other works

• Els ocells amics, (1922)
• "Montserrat" (1960), tourist guide
• Verdaguer, poeta de Catalunya, edition posthumously (1968), literary criticism

External links

• Page devoted to Josep Maria of Sagarra, in lletrA, the space of Catalan literature of the Open University of Catalonia, in Spanish.