Josep Maria de Sagarra

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

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. It studied the bachillerato with the Jesuitas and the career of Right in the University of Barcelona, initially with the purpose of ingresar in the diplomatic career. However prompt wanted to be writer and to the 18 years won a prize of poetry in the Floral Games. It devoted of full to the journalism, in whose work was correspondent in Germany and theatrical critic.

However his main work developed in the field of the literature, especially to the theatre and to the poetry, that cultivated always in Catalan tongue. It collaborated with assiduity in the press, especially in La publicidad and Mirador. It suits to remark also his slope of translator: the Divine comedy of Dante, and the theatre of Shakespeare, Molière and Gogol. Part of his poetry inspired in the popular chansonnier and in ancient legends very known, 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 it obtained the National Prize of Theatre by La Ferida Luminosa, whose version in Spanish was made by José María Pemán. In his last years of life 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.

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.

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