Grijalbo
(Updated 08/10/2024)
The origin of Editorial Grijalbo dates back to 1949, when Joan Grijalbo Serres (1911-2002) founded it in Mexico, where he had been living in exile since 1939. Its output initially revolved around fiction, essays and historical works. In 1962, it established its publishing headquarters in Barcelona, which became a dynamic publishing hub in Spain, and it expanded the range of genres it published.
+ informationSearch collections
In 2014, Penguin Random House donated the documentation generated while Grijalbo was in business to the Biblioteca de Catalunya. This documentation – which is currently in the process of being organised and described – includes contracts and publishing files which span from 1969 until the late 1970s.
Catalogue of publishers from the Bergnes de las Casas collection (Biblioteca de Catalunya)
More information and documentation on the works produced
Website of Penguin Random House Publishing Group
Llanas, Manuel. L'Edició a Catalunya. Segle XX (1939-1975) Barcelona: Gremi d'Editors de Catalunya, 2006.
Grijalbo
Description
The origin of Editorial Grijalbo dates back to 1949, when Joan Grijalbo Serres (1911-2002) founded it in Mexico, where he had been living in exile since 1939. Its output initially revolved around fiction, essays and historical works. In 1962, it established its publishing headquarters in Barcelona, which became a dynamic publishing hub in Spain, and it expanded the range of genres it published.
After 1974, the Grijalbo group began a period of expansion. Edicions Junior was created, mainly to publish Belgian French comics and children’s books. Later on, in 1980, it associated with the French imprint Dargaud to create Edicions Grijalbo/Dargaud. Through this imprint, it published Dargaud’s French comics.
In 1989, it became part of the Italian group Mondadori and was set up as Grup Grijalbo Mondadori; in 2001 it joined the joint enterprise Random House Mondadori; and since 2013 it has been part of the Penguin Random House Publishing Group.
Grijalbo
Authors
The authors published by this imprint are mainly extremely successful novelists, historians, biographers and world-famous names in literature, philosophy and history.
Chomsky, Noam, 1928-
Douglas-Hamilton, James, 1942-
Edwards, Jorge, 1931-
García Márquez, Gabriel, 1927-2014
Goytisolo, Juan, 1931-
Kent, James A.
King, Stephen, 1947-
Lawrence, Bill, 1916-
Merani, Alberto L., 1918-1984
Miguel, Amando de, 1937-
Moravia, Alberto, 1907-1990
Puzo, Mario, 1920-1999
Steel, Danielle, 1947-
Thomas, Hugh, 1931-2017
Vázquez Montalbán, Manuel, 1939-2003
Wallace, Irving, 1916-1990
Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941
Grijalbo
Collections
Grijalbo organised its publishing output into numerous collections grouped by genres, from essays to fiction, along with scientific manuals, theatre and biographies.
- Grijalbo collections
Grijalbo
Outstanding works
While Grijalbo’s initial catalogue included only essays, history and fiction, it later expanded its lines with the publication of biographies, modern fiction, self-help books, cookery books, human relations guides, sexology books, thematic encyclopaedias, dictionaries and great works. Later it focused on fictional bestsellers, such as Mario Puzo’s El Padrino (The Godfather), which was extremely successful.
When it became Grijalbo-Mondadori, it published outstanding works in Spanish and Latin American literature. And with Dargaud it published comics like Astèrix, Lucky Luke and Snoopy.
- Puzo, Mario. El Padrino. Barcelona: Ediciones Grijalbo, 1972.
- Advertising brochure of the Collins dictionaries published by Grijalbo.
- Catalogues of the comics published by Grijalbo/Dargaud.
