Josep Palau i Fabre

Josep Palau i Fabre studied at University of Barcelona. The recorded working language is Catalan, Spanish and French. Ramon Llull and Arthur Rimbaud are recorded as an influence. Residence is recorded at Barcelona and Paris. Employment is recorded with Ariel. Positions recorded include president of PEN català. Distinctions recorded are Officer of Arts and Letters, Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes, Saint George's Cross and Premi Nacional de Literatura.

The son of a painter and decorator, towards the end of the 1930s Fabre began his literary career by writing poetry. He studied arts at the University of Barcelona, and, during the 1950s, he was an active collaborator in various literary magazines such as Poesia and Ariel as well as being an editor at the La serena publishing house. A scholarship from the French government drew Fabre to Paris in 1945, where he lived until 1951. Afterward, he revoked his Spanish citizenship so that he could be classified as a political refugee. In addition to poetry, he wrote plays, short stories and essays, including on Picasso. His fictional world draws on eroticism, showing strong dimensions other than those of the standard idea of reality and harshly criticising the idea of a self-satisfied, mediocre society. Fabre was also an active translator, translating into Catalan works by Antonin Artaud, Arthur Rimbaud, Honoré de Balzac, and the book Letters of a Portuguese Nun. His own books have been translated into several languages. Fabre died at the Hospital de la Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona aged 90 years and was buried in the municipal cemetery in Caldes d'Estrac.

• 1942: Balades amargues • 1943: L'aprenent del poeta • 1945: Imitació de Rosselló-Pòrcel • 1946: Càncer • 1952: Poemes de l'alquimista (reissued in 1977, 1979, 1991 and 2002, the last a bilingual Catalan/Spanish edition) • 2001: Les veus del ventríloc: poesia de teatre

• 1983: Contes despullats • 1984: La tesi doctoral del diable • 1988: Amb noms de dona • 1991: Un Saló que camina • 1993: L'Alfa Romeo i Julieta i altres contes • 1993: Contes de capçalera • 1996: Les metamorfosis d'Ovídia i altres contes

• 1957: Esquelet de Don Joan • 1972: Homenatge a Picasso • 1977: Teatre • 1978: La tràgica història de Miquel Kolhas • 1986: Avui Romeo i Julieta. El porter i el penalty • 1991: L'Alfa Romeo i Julieta, i altres contes, precedit per Aparició de Faust • 2000: La confessió o l'esca del pecat • 2003: Teatre de Don Joan

Josep Palau i Fabre is recorded as having received Officer of Arts and Letters, Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes and Saint George's Cross.