The Plaza & Janés publishing house was founded in 1959 when Germán Plaza, who primarily published soft-cover literature, purchased the publishing house founded by Josep Janés (1913-1959) in 1940, which was up for sale because of Plaza’s untimely death.
Initially Plaza & Janés primarily published in Spanish, although after 1946 it released a few titles in Catalan. Josep Janés’ company stands out for introducing foreign authors, primarily from English literature, and for publishing authors who had won the Nobel, Pulitzer and Goncourt prizes.
+ informationIn 2014, Penguin Random House Publishing Group donated the collection of the Plaza & Janés imprint to the Biblioteca de Catalunya. This collection is currently being organised and described.
It contains documentation generated during the publishing house’s activity as it produced works. It includes documents in a variety of media, such as paper, photographs and sound and/or audiovisual recordings.
Collections of the Biblioteca de Catalunya
Catalogue of publishers and booksellers from the Bergnes de las Casas collection (Biblioteca de Catalunya)
More information and documentation on the works produced
Exhibition Plaza & Janés: llibres per a tothom
Press release (19th June, 2014)
Llanas, Manuel. L'Edició a Catalunya. Segle XX (1939-1975) Barcelona: Gremi d'Editors de Catalunya, 2006.
The Plaza & Janés publishing house was founded in 1959 when Germán Plaza, who primarily published soft-cover literature, purchased the publishing house founded by Josep Janés (1913-1959) in 1940, which was up for sale because of Plaza’s untimely death.
Initially Plaza & Janés primarily published in Spanish, although after 1946 it released a few titles in Catalan. Josep Janés’ company stands out for introducing foreign authors, primarily from English literature, and for publishing authors who had won the Nobel, Pulitzer and Goncourt prizes.
Plaza & Janés is a general publishing house which is open to changes and trends. For many years it has published first-rate authors, and in recent years it has also focused on new authors.
In 1984, it was purchased by the Bertelsmann Group. Later, in 2001, it was absorbed by Random House Mondadori, even though Bertelsmann retained the majority of shares. Since 2013, it has been part of Penguin Random House Publishing Group, the largest publishing group in the world.
The Plaza & Janés catalogue includes internationally prestigious authors such as Stephen King, John le Carré, Ken Follett, Mika Waltari, George R. R. Martin, Isabel Allende, Danielle Steel and Marian Keyes. It also includes prominent Spanish authors such as Javier Reverte, José Luis Sampedro and Julia Navarro, as well as new authors including Carla Montero and Patrick Rothfuss.
The different genres and authors published by the imprint are reflected in the numerous collections published by Plaza & Janés. It also inherited and conserved some of the collections of Josep Janés, Editor.
Catalogues and advertising brochures of the collections
The works published by Plaza & Janés fall within a variety of genres, including novels, essays, biographies, cookbooks, health and tourist guides.