Person
Calvet, Agustín (1887-1964)Alternative forms (other languages) Other forms
Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Girona, España) 1887-10-07 - Barcelona (España) 1964-04-12
Spanish writer and journalist. He used the pseudonym Gaziel in his writings. In 1903, he started the Law Degree in the University of Barcelona. Later, he enrolled in the Faculty of Humanities, his true vocation. He lived for some months in Madrid, where he obtained his PhD in 1908. There, he had the opportunity to meet various figures from the period, such as Bonilla and San Martín (his beloved master), Ramón y Cajal, Luis Simarro, Unamuno, Galdós and Valle-Inclán. He moved to Paris, where he lived during the outbreak of the First World War, event that he narrated in his chronicles for La Veu de Catalunya and for La Vanguardia. His chronicles about the Great War were read throughout Spain and established him as a journalist. Since then and until 1953, he used almost exclusively Spanish, which gave him few critics from the most Catalanist sectors. He run La Vanguardia between 1920 and 1936. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he went into exile. He went back to Spain in 1940, urged by the Nazi advance upon Europe, but he had to stop exercising his profession as he was processed and acquitted by Franco's authorities. He settled in Madrid, where he run the publishing house Plus Ultra, and he dedicated himself to writing books of memories and travels, obtaining a remarkable acclaim by both the critic and audience, including the outstanding "Tots els camins duen a Roma. Història d'un destí" (1958). In 1959, he settled permanently in Barcelona, where he went back to writing in his native language. Posthumously, his unpublished work was published in "Obra catalana completa" (1970), and in 1971, "Historia de 'La Vanguardia'" appears in Paris (1884-1936). For many he is considered the first "modern" journalist of the Spanish State, and the first one that gave an international perspective to his writings.