Popular publishing in Spain. The case of Editorial Cervantes Notes

Abstract

The publisher, translator and writer Vicente Clavel Andrés, for years a journalist in the Valencian newspaper El Pueblo with Félix Azzati and conspicuous Republican activist before taking up the publishing business, is, probably, known in the history of publishing in Spain, above all, for having managed to bring about through his own vested interest from 1922 onwards his initiative to officially establish in the country a Book Day, which
finally receives government support in February 1926. However, no less outstanding is his professional and cultural work with Editorial Cervantes until well into the sixties. Clavel begins, at a very early age, in Valencia his journey as a publisher in 1916 taking, undoubtedly, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and Francisco Sempere’s Editorial Prometeo as an initial model of popular publishing. Nevertheless, commercially speaking, he built his
own model in order to survive. Having moved his commercial activity to Barcelona he always kept in close touch with his hometown, both professionally and as a citizen. Clavel will have a significant degree of personal-professional involvement with his company through his work as a translator, prologue writer, or even writing some works himself.

KEY WORDS: Vicente Clavel, Editorial Cervantes, popular publishing.