The publishing house Seix Barral celebrates its centennial

The company which currently belongs to the Planeta group offers a catalogue that includes great universal works and 23 Nobel Prize winners.

19.07.2011
The Catalan publishing company Seix Barral originally started off as a graphic arts business and has become an international reference point for the Spanish-language market. This year it celebrates its centennial with a wide and consolidated catalogue that includes both great international works and a group of new authors, new literary tendencies and the publishing of a book about its history.

Although the company originally started by publishing theater works for children, toys and didactic support for primary education, what really catapulted it to fame and prominence, was publishing acclaimed European authors. Writers such as Italo Svevo or Robert Musil were introduced into the publishing market under the somewhat hostile surroundings of the Franco dictatorship. Today, 100 years after having first opened its doors, it can boast about including such writers as the Catalan Juan Marsé (Last Evenings with Teresa), Luis Martín-Santos (Time of Silence), international bestsellers like Patrick Süskind's Perfume, set in the XVIII century and translated into 45 different languages, and Follow Your Heart by the Italian author Susanna Tamaro.

The publishing company was founded in 1911 through the partnership of Victoriano Seix Miralta with Luis and Carlos Barral. It was initially a graphic arts business located in Barcelona's Provença in street. Carlos Barral jr., who was the literary director in 1950, was responsible for the company's growth and positioning as one of the most important in the Spanish-language market, after his associate's accidental death. In 1982 the publishing company became part of the Planeta Goup, which owns other publishing companies as Planeta Editorial and Editorial Espasa-Calpe, in addition to its prominent role in the national and Catalan communication industry.