Argos

Description

The Barcelona bookshop Argos was founded in the early 1940s on Passeig de Gràcia. In 1958 it was purchased by the writer and publisher Ignasi Agustí with the financial assistance of the Catalan businessman Jaume Castell after Agustí sold his shares in the Destino publishing house. Even though the publisher-bookshop already had five collections with considerable commercial appeal, including Carabela, Calesa, Los Artistas Contemporáneos, La Vida y las Vidas and Miguel Ángel, it was not until Agustí’s arrival that it came to have a solid range of collections. Thus, Agustí took over the publishing house and maintained the shop as he worked as a literary editor, publishing works such as Robert Jungk’s Más brillante que mil soles (Brighter than a Thousand Suns), Eugenio Nadal’s Ciudades en España and his own Mariona Rebull.

The bookshop often hosted presentations and literary talks with the participation of intellectuals, artists and writers of the era. Unfortunately, Argos never managed to hit its stride. Thus, in 1970, because of health problems, Agustí ceased being the owner of Argos and it was taken up by Jaume Castell’s Banco de Madrid. Around this time the bank had also become the owner of another Catalan publishing house, Vergara, which had been besieged by major financial difficulties. With the goal of refloating the package, the bank decided to merge both names in 1975, giving rise to the Argos-Vergara publishing house, and hiring Mario Lacruz, who had worked at Plaza & Janés, as the literary director.

Argos

Authors

Argos published authors writing in a wide variety of genres throughout its history, including the writer and owner of the publishing house, Ignasi Agustí.

• Agustí, Ignasi, 1913-1974

• Andersen, H. C. (Hans Christian), 1805-1875

• Benet, Rafael, 1889-1979

• Cortés, Juan, 1898-1969

• Jungk, Robert, 1913-1994

• Karinthy, Frigyes, 1887-1938

• Nadal, Eugenio, 1917-1944

• Pla, Josep, 1897-1981

• Sienkiewicz, Henryk, 1846-1916

• Turguenev, Ivan Sergueievitx, 1818-1883

Argos

Literary editors

• Agustí, Ignasi, 1913-1974

Argos

Collections

Prior to the arrival of Ignasi Agustí, there were five collections: Carabela, Calesa, Los Artistas Contemporáneos, La Vida y las Vidas and Miguel Ángel. The titles published in these collections were then integrated into other collections that were created later. It was not until Agustí’s arrival that it came to have a solid range of collections. The Dime… collection and the Yo Descubro collection came to be part of the Argos-Vergara catalogue once Argos merged with the Vergara publishing house.

• Catalogues from the publishing house in different time periods.

• Colección dime...

• Colección yo descubro

• Documenta

• La selva iluminada

• Magia del color

• Viejos pueblos y lugares

Argos

Outstanding works

• Mariona Rebull is the most important work by Ignasi Augustí, the owner and literary editor of Argos

• Agustí, Ignasi. Mariona Rebull. Barcelona: Argos, 1962.

• Las ciudades del mar by Josep Pla is part of Carabela, one of the first collections that the Argos publisher-bookshop issued before the arrival of Ignasi Agustí.

• Pla, Josep. Las ciudades del mar. Barcelona: Argos, 1942.

• Another of the first collections was La Vida y las Vidas, which features El cuento de mi vida (The True Story of my Life) by H. C. Andersen.
• Andersen, H. C. El cuento de mi vida. Barcelona: Argos, 1942.