The great mystery of Joan Salvat-Papasseit

BarcelonaJoan Salvat-Papasseit (Barcelona, 1894–1924) had a short and difficult life, but more than a century after his death he is still remembered thanks to his avant-garde, direct and transparent verses, collected in books such as L'irradiador del port i les gavines (Tallers Atenes A.G., 1921) and El poema de la rosa als llavis (Llibreria Nacional Catalana, 1923). "The love for Salvat-Papasseit has nothing to do only with the emotional quality of his poetry, but with those who kept the flame of his memory alive," argues editor Jordi Cornudella – who recovered his Poesia completa at Edicions 62 in 2024 – during the presentation of an essential volume to bring back to life the author's work, Sobre Salvat-Papasseit i altres escrits, by Tomàs Garcés (Barcelona, 190–1993).

Since Selecta published it in 1972, no other edition had been made. Lleonard Muntaner has dared to do so thanks to the work of Manuel Guerrero, essayist, art critic, and exhibition curator. "When, in 2012, Galaxia Gutenberg brought together Garcés' complete works in one volume, I found texts by Garcés about Salvat that had not been included in Sobre Salvat-Papasseit i altres escrits – he recalls. Later I went to the Garcés archive, which is located at the Biblioteca de Catalunya, and I found a couple or three unpublished texts there." The new edition of the book has been enriched with eleven texts by Garcés and seven by critics such as J.M. Junoy and Juan Ramon Masoliver. Also with the obituary that Josep Maria de Sagarra dedicated to him in La Publicitat in August 1924, in which one can read: "If among our men of spirit, among our self-sacrificing workers of the pen, there is a truly heroic, impressive case, that case will be the life and work of Salvat-Papasseit".

From poverty to poetry

The volume concludes with an epilogue by Marina Garcés, a philosopher, essayist, and granddaughter of Tomàs Garcés. "My grandfather's friendship with Salvat began in 1919 and ended in 1924, but it accompanied him for the rest of his life," she says. In the book, she explains it this way: "Together, they traveled the path that leads from poverty to poetry, from the streets of Barceloneta to the vibrant Europe of those years, and from adolescent dreams, inflated like sails, to the demanding work of writing, learned by both from scraps and with difficulty." When Garcés met Salvat in 1919, "he had already left his more militant socialist and anarchist and social criticism phase, and was increasingly turning to poetry," argues Manuel Guerrero, before adding that "through Xènius's mediation, Salvat had obtained, for the first time, a stable job he liked and performed with pleasure: taking charge of Santiago Segura's bookstore at Galeries Laietanes, on Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes".

At that time, Salvat was already suffering from the tuberculosis that would end his life five years later, but he had just had his first daughter, Salomé, with Carme Eleuterio, and was about to debut as an author in Catalan with Poemes en ondes hertzianes (Publicacions Mar Vella, 1919). Sobre Salvat-Papasseit i altres textos begins with a biographical sketch by Garcés which, in the words of the scholar and professor Ferran Gadea, author of Joan Salvat-Papasseit: cada ferida la sang d'un poema (Barcino, 2024), has made it possible "to write about Salvat-Papasseit with certainty thanks to the direct testimonies he consults," among whom are his widow, but also friends such as the writer Joan Alavedra (Barcelona, 1896–1981) and the bookseller and writer Emili Eroles (Tàrrega, 1895–Barcelona, 1983).

The living word of Salvat and Garcés

Although the death of Salvat-Papasseit broke off the relationship, Garcés continued to think and write about his friend for almost fifty years. "Garcés was the first to point out the unity of Salvat-Papasseit's work – comments the literary critic and poet D. Sam Abrams–. He also found links between Salvat's work and that of Joan Maragall, and compares his erotic poetry with that of Catullus. Being able to re-read Sobre Salvat-Papasseit i altres textos is an act of justice towards Garcés, an author of the highest level in everything he cultivated, who was not satisfied with poetry, but also extended his talent to literary criticism, memorialistic work, and translation."

"In 1994, when it was the centenary of his birth, the celebration of Salvat-Papasseit, an avant-garde poet who moved through socialism, anarchism, and separatism, was very testimonial," explains Ferran Aisa, essayist, biographer of Salvat-Papasseit (with Mei Vidal), and curator of the institutional year dedicated to the author in 2024, which has made it possible not only to recover the author's complete works but also to encourage the publication of a volume like Garcés'. "Salvat-Papasseit was brought back into circulation by J.V. Foix in the 60s, which preceded an explosion of texts, which did not come from academic circles, but from more open cultural environments – assures Jordi Cornudella–. Among the many successes of Garcés' book is the fact that it touches on Salvat's essential point. His great mystery is how someone orphaned very early, orphaned from books and also from education, becomes, after a few years and with six books, an authentic poet".

Marina Garcés ventures a possible answer: "In the era when Salvat and my grandfather grew up, even though they came from suburban neighborhoods, they both had a lively relationship with words." The philosopher poses a final question: "How could we, from our present, ensure that the desire to invent words can have a trajectory, a quality, and a demand on the language like those of a century ago?"