This year that ends has been the celebration of the half century of life of two great publishers, Anagrama and Tusquets, recognized as responsible for sentimental education and the training of many readers. Ten years before, the older sister, in a literal and figurative sense, of these had been refounded: Lumen, whose 60th anniversary is celebrated with the reissue of the professional memories of its founder, Esther Tusquets , Confessions of a little liar editor .
Esther Tusquets (Barcelona, 1936-2012) was a passionate reader, enrolled in Philosophy and Letters and, first surprise, chose the history specialty. He did not choose language and literature because “he wanted literature to remain pure pleasure, uncontaminated pleasure, and not a reason for study or anything related to work. I was not interested in becoming a professor of literature, literary criticism, brave Hispanic. The only thing that appealed to me was reading and writing ».
Chance brought a religious publishing house founded by his father's older brother in Burgos , in the middle of the Civil War - the best-selling book was To God for Science , where Father Simon «showed, chapter by chapter, based of irrefutable scientific facts the existence of God »-. The publishing house, Lumen, was self-sufficient, also "Franco and pious," and the father bought it from his brother for very little money in the year 59. The initial purpose was for the publishing house to continue with its religious longsellers and be added every year. two or three chosen by them, "of those that I sometimes lamented with surprise that, being so interesting, nobody published them in Spanish," says Confessions. However, the whole family - the father, the mother, Esther and his brother Óscar, a first-year architecture student, and Emilio Blay, his cousin - was so involved in the publishing house that that year, after having ruled out the publication of more religious books, attended the Frankfurt Fair. They returned with the rights to the most beautiful book of the fair, according to Oscar, a delicate book, with black and white photographs of Eikoh Hosoe and Mishima texts in Japanese, and some books for children.
They made a mistake of the passionate beginner, bought a beautiful book, but difficult to exit in the Spanish market, and also without knowing anything about all matters related to printing and selling books. That first mistake became the norm: they would publish only books that they liked.
Esther, his brother Oscar and his friend Lluís Clotet would make the decisions. The idea of paying special attention to children's books was Esther and not only did it guided because she believed there was a niche, because she believed they were unattended, also because she thought it was important: children's books can become "the exciting first I find literature ”, although the editor did not believe that it was necessary for everyone to like to read, as expected in someone who believed that literature was above all a source of pleasure . Lumen was going to deal not only with an illustrated album and create Great Authors, a collection in which consecrated writers would write stories for children that Ana María Matute inaugurated, she also edited stories by Adela Turin that tried to promote equality through funny stories and fascinating that formed the collection In favor of girls.
Confessions of a little liar editor tells the first 40 years of Lumen's story in a simple and entertaining way, almost like an adventure novel. But he admits many other readings: it is also a succinct story of the independent edition in Spain, it portrays the world of what was called the divine gauche, which Esther Tusquets looked at first with fascination - she came from another world - and from which Then he was part. It also allows us to see how the publishing world has changed, and the news that the arrival of the big groups brought. Also how the world of publishing was professionalized; for example, the figure of the agent that Carmen Balcells was invented in Spain almost from scratch , but also the importance of distribution in the publishing business and the creation of the Enlace distributor in which several publishers participated, from Barral to Herralde.
Luck is always the best ally, also when building a catalog. In the case of Lumen, chance was decisive: first in the purchase of the publishing house that was a gift from the father to Esther Tusquets, but also in at least two books that became successes: The name of the rose and Mafalda. Umberto Eco's novel was going to be taken by Seix Barral, but he had the year closed and Barral asked his friend to take it out in Lumen. Something similar happened with the character of Quino: they offered it to Barral, who was not interested in the comic and suggested that it might interest Lumen.
Almost inevitably, the great Spanish writers of the late twentieth century appear in the book. Delibes, Ignacio Aldecoa, Carmen Martín Gaite, the Moix brothers, Pablo Neruda, Mario Vargas Llosa and Camilo José Cela are just some of the writers whose way of working is told: from the almost obsessive perfectionism of Vargas Llosa to the spontaneous grace of the Moix , for example. Other writers appear, such as José María Conget and Félix de Azúa. And these ex officio memories draw a woman of character, with a great sense of loyalty that allowed her, above all, to know how to recognize and thank her. The thorns are guessed, because although he acknowledges that he will not lie, he also admits that he will not say everything: for example, he does not explain the reasons for distancing himself with Ana María Moix. There is no willingness to settle accounts either when it tells how the new life of the publisher was once it became part of a large group, and that was not well treated.
There is none of that in part because the book is very celebratory and does not seem to hold grudges. Not even Cela , with whom he had a relationship if not friendship - he says he was "about to become friends" with the writer - yes of colleague and camaraderie for a few years, until it broke down definitively. In spite of everything, he writes: «But, surprisingly, I not only had fun, but I liked him. In large part, because I considered him, and I consider him, a very good writer. Not a great builder of fictional plots, but an author capable of texts - such as those he wrote for me - impeccable, in which there is no adjective or a comma missing, in which there is nothing to correct and in which he , once delivered, I used to modify nothing ». What he says applied to Cela contains the clearest explanation - which is not simple - of what it is to write well: make texts in which there is no adjective left over or a comma is missing.
It also says one thing about bad books that is a kind of terrible truth : writing a bad book is a great effort, the same as writing a good one. And he says that he knows that because she writes. Esther Tusquets debuted late as a writer with the same sea every summer and made a decision: take it out in her own editorial. He did it for one reason: he knew that any of his editor friends, Herralde or Barral, would have taken it out. But it seemed to him that he would have the guarantee of his prestige not for literary reasons, but for friendship.
Thus began a solid career as a writer who perhaps had begun much earlier: an editor, he explains, is actually a writer who takes care of the work of other writers. She talks about herself as a small publisher , but that didn't stop her from building a solid publishing house that risked and was a reference and a home for many readers.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- culture
- literature
The Paper Sphere Eduardo Mendoza, a historic smile
The Sphere of Paper Cristina Morales: "I write from an offensive place"
The Sphere of PapelCaracas, praise of the local chronicler