Josep Maria de Sagarra

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

Biography 
Born in Barcelona in 1894, in the breast of a family of the Catalan nobility being son of the historian and sigilógrafo Fernando de Sagarra i de Siscar. He attended a Jesuit high school and studied Law at the University of Barcelona, initially with the purpose of entering into a diplomatic career. However he quickly decided to become a writer and at the age  of 18 won a prize of poetry in the Floral Games. He became a full time journalist who worked as a correspondent in Germany and as a 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 won the National Prize of Theatre for La Ferida Luminosa, whose version in Spanish was made by José María Pemán. In the last years of life he was a 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 a long illness, he died in Barcelona on September 27, 1961, and was laid to rest on the Cemetery of Montjuïc.

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

Main works

Poetry 
  (1914)
  (1916)
 , (1918)
 , (1922)
 , (1923)
 , (1925)
 , (1928), long poem in heroic verse
 , (1933)
 , (1936)
 , (1938)
 , (1950)
 , traducción de Dante, (1950)

Novel 
 , (1919)
 , (1929)
 , (1932) Award winner Joan Crexells

Anthologies of newspaper articles 
 , (1929)
 , (1937) o (1946)
 , (1959), in Spanish
 , (1954)
 "" (2001)
 "" (2004)

Theatre 
  (1918)
  (1921)
  (1922)
  (1923)
  (1923)
  (1925)
 , (1928), comedy
 , (1928), comedy
 , (1935)
 , (1929)
 , (1926)
 , (1929)
 , (2000)
 , (1931)
 , (1933)
 , (1934)
 , (1935)
 , (1946)
 , (1947)
 , (1948)
 , (1949)
 , (1950)
 , (1952)
 La herida luminosa, (1954)
 , (1955)
 ,translated from Molière, (1960)
 ,translated from Gogol, (1961)

Other works 
 , (1922)
 "" (1960), tourist guide
 , edition posthumously (1968), literary criticism

References

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

References 

Category:Writers from Barcelona
Category:20th-century Spanish writers
Category:20th-century Spanish male writers
Category:1961 deaths
Category:Members of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans
Category:1894 births
Category:Catalan-language poets
Category:Translators to Catalan
Category:Catalan translators
Category:20th-century translators