The literary supplement ‘April’ explained to us this week the situation of the personal archive of the Barcelona writer Juan Marsé, who died three years ago. At this time he is still in the process of being cataloged by his daughter, Berta Marseand other collaborators such as the also writer Emily Manzano. Originals of his novels, correspondence with authors and publishers, personal notebooks, drawings and personal memories make up a literary collection with immense sentimental value. and which is also a valuable element of literary cultural heritage of the city, especially as long as it is consultable by scholars of the novelist’s work and the ecosystem of a publishing and literary capital such as Barcelona.
Right now the final destination of this fund is not defined, nor is there evidence that concrete steps have yet been taken to find accommodation for him. The antecedents have so far had mixed endings. Since the purchase by the Ministry of Culture of the archive of the Carmen Balcells Literary Agencymaintenance of the publisher’s archive Anagram in Barcelona guarded by the Feltrinelli Foundation, when it seemed that it was going to follow the same path, the transfer of the Book club to the National Library or legacies such as that of Mercè Rodoreda to the Institut d’Estudis Catalans or that of the publisher Plaza&Janes and the writer Manuel Vazquez Montalban to the Library of Catalonia. In the latter case, public access to its collection has made it possible to identify, for example, an unpublished novel that will finally be published.
The explicit wishes of the owner of the funds after a tense relationship with the administrations, the will of the legitimate heirs, the financial offers from the State Administration or simple lack of interest have meant that different archives with patrimonial value (that of the Balcells, in its day that of the photographer Centelles, or the Lafuente Archive focused on the Barcelona ‘underground’ of the 70s) have not stayed where they were created.
At times, the opportunity was raised to create an institution that would assume the conservation, consultation and promotion of research papers on the archives of Barcelonan writers and publishers. Although this initiative has not become a reality, there is no shortage of entities willing to give them the appropriate treatment. Nor future projects (the central library of Barcelona or the hitherto frustrated Casa de les Lletres in Poblenou).
The greater budgetary availability on the part of the central Administration to deal with this type of operation does not have to mean that its destination is inevitably an institution located in the capital. Nor does it mean that everything should end in a bid: in these cases, the real investment required from the Administration is the one necessary (and not less) to make good use of the files it guards. But It would be good news if the memory of a writer whose person and work is inseparable from the city of Barcelona can find its home here. It would be a gesture, as was the christening of the Guinardó municipal library with his name, which would be much more valuable than the medals that his critical vision of Catalan reality meant that they were neither offered nor accepted.