The Biblioteca Jaume Fuster is holding an exhibition until 15 January entitled “Les aventures de l’Editorial Joventut. Un viatge pel passat i el present de l’editorial” [The adventures of the Joventut Publishing House. A journey through the publishing house’s past and present], curated by Julià Guillamon and Mònica Baró. They are the co-authors of the exhibition’s catalogue of the same name, published by Barcelona City Council’s Editorial and Publishing Board.
An anonymous decision was reached at a Full Municipal Council Meeting for the Gold Medal for Cultural Merit to be awarded to the patron and collector Rafael Tous and to the Joventut Publishing House . The medal for the Joventut Publishing House is in recognition of its long history seeking to make universal literature more accessible and encourage its reading among the general public, which it has maintained and expanded to date, and in particular for being a benchmark publisher of children’s and young people’s literature both nationally and internationally.
Joventut is to receive the award during its centenary year. Founded in Barcelona in 1923 by José Zendrera i Fecha, it is a independent family publishing house, run by four generations of the Zendrera family. It has published close to 10,000 works in Catalan and Spanish during its long history and worked non-stop to make universal literature more accessible and promote its reading among the public at large, through its position in particular as a benchmark publishing house of children’s and young people’s literature. A pioneer in popular collections of romance, Western and action novels, it introduced pocket books to the Spanish State with its Z collection.
A catalogue with big international hits
The Joventut Publishing House catalogue features Catalan-language translations of series and works such as; The adventures of Tintin, as the exclusive publisher (being the only publishing house in the world besides Casterman to publish that series); Enid Blyton’s Famous Five; Heidi; Alice in Wonderland; Peter Pan and Wendy; Pippi Longstocking, and tales by the Brothers Grimm, Carles Riba, Hans Christian Andersen and Josep Carner. Besides distributing throughout the Spanish State, the Joventut Publishing House also recently expanded its business to Latin America. It currently distributes in over forty countries. The Biblioteca Jaume Fuster is holding an exhibition until 5 January entitled “Les aventures de l’Editorial Joventut. Un viatge pel passat i el present de l’editorial” [The adventures of the Joventut Publishing House. A journey through the publishing house’s past and present], curated by Julià Guillamon and Mònica Baró. They are the co-authors of the exhibition’s catalogue of the same name, published by Barcelona City Council’s Editorial and Publishing Board.