Pere Calders i Rossinyol (; Barcelona, 29 September 1912 – 21 July 1994) was a writer, journalist and illustrator from Catalonia, known mainly for his work as a short story writer.Bath (1987): p.147 Over his life, he received several awards, including the Creu de Sant Jordi in 1982 and the Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes in 1986. Besides short stories, Calders wrote several novels and journalistic articles for some of the most important publications in Catalonia. His writings were noted for their irony and occasional fantasy. As an illustrator, he reached the position of director of L'Esquella de la Torratxa, together with his friend Tísner.
After the Spanish Civil War, in which Calders fought on the Republican side, he went into exile in Mexico where he lived for twenty-three years. With the stories he wrote during his early exile years, he compiled a collection called Cròniques de la veritat oculta, his best-known book, which won the Víctor Català Prize in 1954. However, Calders did not become truly popular until 1978 with the premiere of Antaviana, a theatrical work by Dagoll Dagom based on his stories. Following the success of Antaviana, many of his books were reissued and his work was translated into fifteen different languages. In 1992, the Autonomous University of Barcelona awarded him an honorary doctorate.
Biography
Pere Calders i Rossinyol was born in Barcelona on 29 September 1912, at 274 Rosselló Street, in the Eixample district. He was the only child of the marriage between Vicenç Caldés Arús, a graphic artist and writer who had written some novels and plays, and Teresa Rusiñol Roviralta.Pons (1995): p. 14 Both parents were Catalan peasants who had moved to Barcelona shortly after getting married, and thus Calders’ education developed within a Catalan atmosphere.Bath (1987): p. 31 When he was born, his father registered him as Pedro de Alcántara Caldés y Rusiñol and did not normalize his name and surnames until 1936.Pons (1995): p. 15 Shortly after Calders’ birth, they moved to live in the el Clot neighborhood of Barcelona.Pons (1995): p. 22 During his childhood, he spent long periods at Can Maurí, a family property located between the municipalities of Polinyà, Sabadell and Sentmenat. Those stays greatly influenced Calders’ literary work because, at dusk, the family gathered around the fireplace and told stories and tales.
Before attending school, his mother taught him to read. While living in Clot, Calders studied at the Sant Pere Claver School, which was run by Jesuits,Pons (1995): p. 25 and in 1920, coinciding with another move to Balmes Street, he enrolled at the Mossèn Cinto School, where Avel·lí Artís i Gener (Tísner), the philologist Joan Coromines, and Ricard Boadella were also students.Vallverdú (1996): p. 8 There, students regularly wrote essays about whatever they wanted, and some of those exercises later became published stories, such as the one that gives the title to his first collection, El primer arlequí. However, the school was closed in 1923, accused of separatism.Puig (2003): p. 131Pons (1995): p. 46 Afterwards, the school's director, Josep Parunella, continued teaching at the Reixach Academy. Calders went there to study and continued to receive writing classes from Parunella.Pons (1995): p. 48
Youth Between 1929 and 1934, he studied at the Llotja, the School of Fine Arts, where he met classmates like Tísner and had teachers such as the painter Ramon Calsina. There he met Mercè Casals, whom he later married.
While studying at Llotja, he worked as an apprentice with a Czech advertiser named Karel Černý. In 1930, he founded a graphic design studio with two classmates, Estudi CCC. In 1933, he started working for the Diario Mercantil, where Tísner also worked, as an editor. There he published his first articles and drew illustrations to accompany articles and poems. That same year the newspaper closed, and its director, Josep Janés i Olivé, founded another newspaper called Avui, where Calders published a regular column. Calders also designed the newspaper and its header. It was in this newspaper that he published his first story. However, this newspaper did not last long and eventually closed.
In 1934, when the Events of October 6 took place, Calders was a member of Palestra, an organization he described as "special, somewhat political, somewhat educational, a hiking club". On Sundays, they practiced military training with sticks that simulated rifles. On October 6, they were given rifles, including Calders, who did not know how to use them, and were divided into groups. Calders' group was sent to the Coliseum Theatre, where they spent the night. They heard gunshots but did not know exactly what was happening until Josep Maria Batista i Roca went up on stage at dawn and told them everything was lost and they could leave.
On 4 November 1935, he married Mercè Casals, and on 31 July 1936 their first and only child, Joan Caldés i Casals, was born. That same June, Josep Janés published Calders' first book, El primer arlequí, a collection of eight stories, as part of the Quaderns Literaris collection. In December 1936, Josep Janés published, also within Quaderns Literaris, Calders' first novel, La glòria del doctor Larén.
Spanish Civil War
In 1936, before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Calders was a member of the youth wing of Acció Catalana.Puig (2003): p. 144 With the start of the war and the creation of the PSUC, Calders joined this party, partly because its program was based on self-determination.Marimon, Sílvia. "Three writers who took up arms", Ara, 22 October 2012.
In October 1936, the magazine L'Esquella de la Torratxa was relaunched, and Calders and Tísner were put in charge of its direction in this new phase.Esquella de la Torratxa archive During this period, he also worked for the publication Mirador, where he published the story Les mans del taumaturg, later included in the book Cròniques de la veritat oculta. He also contributed drawings to the Diari de Barcelona.Pons (1995): p. 119
At the end of 1937, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Republican army, serving in the corps of customs officers, where he was appointed cartographic technician.Pere Calders and Josep Maria Espinàs (1984). Identities (TV3). Video, 00:17:40–00:18:20. With the beginning of the Battle of Teruel, his cartographic unit was deployed there.Palà (2000): p. 88 That same year, he submitted the unpublished novel La cèl·lula to the Joan Crexells Prize for narrative, which was ultimately won by Mercè Rodoreda with her novel Aloma.Palà (2000): p. 83 La cèl·lula was lost during his return trip from exile.Álvarez et al. 2009, p. 16. From his war experience, he wrote the novel Unitats de xoc, published in 1938 by Editorial Forja.Book Day 1938, La Vanguardia, 12 June 1938, p. 11. In 1938, he also wrote the novel Gaeli i l'home Déu, which was not published until 1986, and submitted it to the 1938 Joan Crexells Prize as well, but it did not win.Gregori (2012): p. 34
Exile France On 10 February 1939, Calders left for France, leaving his wife and son in Barcelona.Puig (2003): p. 134 He crossed the Coll d'Ares on the same day and went to Prats de Molló i la Presta.Bath (1987): p. 43 There, he was imprisoned in a concentration camp.Puig (2003): p. 146 Calders and four companions, including Tísner and his brother-in-law, Enric Clusellas, managed to escape and fled to Toulouse, where the University Committee for Refugee Aid offered protection to intellectuals. There he was given forms to choose the country where they would go if they had to leave France, and Calders chose Mexico. For a while, he lived there with Tísner and part of his family, including his future wife, Rosa Artís i Gener.Pons (1995): p. 152
On 2 April 1939, he left for Roissy-en-Brie, where he met other intellectuals of the time such as Mercè Rodoreda, Francesc Trabal, Armand Obiols, Cèsar August Jordana, and Xavier Benguerel i Llobet.Pons (1995): p. 166Pons (1995): p. 167 He developed a friendship with Benguerel that lasted until his death.
Finally, on 4 July 1939, he left for Mexico, where Tísner was already living, aboard the ship Mexique departing from Bordeaux.Palà (2000): p. 94 Shortly after his departure, his wife, Mercè Casals, arrived at Roissy-en-Brie, and when she saw Calders had already left, she also went to Mexico,Pons (1995): p. 175 unaware that Calders had written several love letters to Rosa Artís, with whom he was in love but never married.Pons (1995): p. 190
"I feel compelled to flee from everything I love, and I have so much rage and sorrow that I cry with dry eyes, and I wouldn't mind dying at all."Puig (2003): p. 18 — Pere Calders
Mexico
On 27 July 1939, Calders arrived at the port of Veracruz. During the voyage, Calders took part in the ship's log.Bath (1987): p. 42 From Veracruz, he traveled to Mexico City. Calders carried a letter of recommendation from Francesc Trabal addressed to Josep Carner and another from Armand Obiols addressed to his brother.Bath (1987): p. 45 There, he first met Obiols’ brother, but he was unable to offer him work because his business partner had just stolen the company's money. He then met with Carner, who helped him publish three of his short stories in exchange for 240 pesos, enough to live for about three months at that time.Pons (1995): p. 184 Carner also gave him a letter of recommendation for the Atlante Publishing House, where Calders later worked. He also reunited with his friend Tísner. At the end of 1939, Mercè Casals arrived in Mexico and met Calders. Calders and his wife lived together, even though he had already declared his love for Rosa Artís and they were courting.
In October 1941, he began collaborating with Full Català, where he published some short stories such as Raspall. With the stories he published during his exile, later collected in Memòries especials, Calders won the Concepció Rabell Prize for narrative at the Catalan Language Floral Games held in Mexico on 3 May 1942. For a time, he worked with Tísner at Publicistas Mexicanos, S.A. as a photographer, earning one peso per job.Bath (1987): p. 46 In 1943, he began working at UTEHA (Unión Tipográfica Editorial Hispanoamericana) as a graphic artist and technical draftsman and remained there until his return to Barcelona.Palà (2000): pp. 111–114 Throughout his exile, he also contributed to several publications such as La Revista dels catalans a Amèrica, Quaderns de l'Exili, Revista de Catalunya, Lletres, La Nostra Revista, and Pont Blau, among others.Bath (1987): p. 48 On 22 July 1943, he was granted a divorce after having applied for it two years earlier and married Rosa Artís on the same day.Pons (1995): p. 201