Barcelona, 1959-

Plaza & Janés


(Updated 08/10/2024)

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.

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In 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.