2014 Biblioteca de Catalunya. Carrer de l'Hospital, 56. 08001 Barcelona.
Tlf.:+34 93 270 23 00. Fax: +34 93 270 23 04 bustia@bnc.cat | Some rights reserved · Technical note· Legal notice
Even though this publishing house was officially created in 1946, its origins date back to 1943, when Josep Maria Cruzet secured permission to publish the complete works of Jacint Verdaguer. The literary directors of the complete works were Josep Miracle and later Tomàs Tebé.
Selecta’s goal was to showcase the continuity of Catalan literature by publishing its most classic authors while also providing an opportunity for those who were starting out during the adverse conditions of the Franco regime.
+ informationJosep Maria Cruzet collection of Biblioteca de Catalunya
The Biblioteca de Catalunya purchased this collection from Sebastià Borràs, one of the directors of Llibreria Catalònia. It has both professional documentation – from Llibreria Catalònia-Casa del Libro, Editorial Selecta and Editorial Aedos— and personal documentation. The holdings include 105 boxes which contain reports, bylaws, account books, tributes to authors, documentation on collections, translations, censorship papers, literary prizes, etc.
Its graphic documentation includes everything from invitations to launches of novels and sketches of the covers of some of the books.
Catalogue of publishers from the Bergnes de las Casas collection (Biblioteca de Catalunya)
Catalogue of publishers of Catalonia from 1940 to 1975
More information and documentation on the works produced
Miracle, Josep, L’Obra de Josep Maria Cruzet. Barcelona: Selecta, 1963.
Josep M. Cruzet i la fundació de l’Editorial Selecta (Josep M. Cruzet and the creation of Editorial Selecta)
Even though this publishing house was officially created in 1946, its origins date back to 1943, when Josep Maria Cruzet secured permission to publish the complete works of Jacint Verdaguer. The literary directors of the complete works were Josep Miracle and later Tomàs Tebé.
Selecta’s goal was to showcase the continuity of Catalan literature by publishing its most classic authors while also providing an opportunity for those who were starting out during the adverse conditions of the Franco regime.
To achieve this goal, it had to assemble a stable core of readers, and the reissues of some of its works are a clear sign of its success in this endeavour. It published a wide variety of genres, including poetry, novels, theatre, essays, stories, travel writing, critique, memoirs and history.
The numbers reveal the size of the company: by 1952 Biblioteca Selecta had published 100 volumes, and by 1961 this figure was more than 300.
After Cruzet’s death, the publishing house gradually slowed its pace of publication and managed to stay afloat thanks to reissues, as its stable of authors diminished and strong competition emerged.
In 1986, one year after having received the Creu de Sant Jordi (Saint George’s Cross) from the Generalitat de Catalunya, it merged with Catalònia and became yet another section within Catalònia’s collection. In 1998, it was purchased by Grup 62, where it remains as its own imprint within the group.
It published seven or eight prominent collections, including Biblioteca Selecta, which focused on publishing the works by the leading Catalan authors, and later introduced editions by foreign authors; Biblioteca Perenne, which sought to compile the complete works of great classic Catalan authors; and Col·lecció Antílop, devoted to publishing the winners of the Santa Llúcia Prize.
This stands out for being the first Catalan work to be published after the war, however with the ban on correcting the pre-Pompeu Fabra grammar.
In 1948, Biblioteca Excelsa was launched with the works of this author.
This was the first translated work that the publishing house issued. Even though it was not the only one, translations do not make up the bulk of the Selecta catalogue, largely because of the obstacles placed by the dictatorship, but also because of its mission of publishing the essential authors and works in Catalan literature.
2014 Biblioteca de Catalunya. Carrer de l'Hospital, 56. 08001 Barcelona.
Tlf.:+34 93 270 23 00. Fax: +34 93 270 23 04 bustia@bnc.cat | Some rights reserved · Technical note· Legal notice