Beatriz de Moura, the reader who created a (successful) publishing house in her living room

The relationship went beyond the romantic. Óscar's father, Magín Tusquets, handed over the Lumen publishing house to his children, Óscar and Esther, in 1959, and Beatriz joined the business. Carlota Álvarez Maylín delves into the reasons that led to the confrontation between Beatriz and Esther, which led to their inevitable breakup.

In 2017, Beatriz de Moura donated the perfectly cataloged archives of Tusquets Editores to the National Library of Spain (the Library of Catalonia was less than agile in letting them slip away). The recently published biographical study of the editor by Carlota Alvarez Maylín, "A Curiosity Without Barriers ," demonstrates the usefulness of this repository. The book makes magnificent use of these archives and others, such as those of Latin American authors from Princeton University, to paint a substantial portrait of the editor and the times in which she lived. Of the more private Beatriz de Moura, we see how she consolidated a cultural vocation despite the setbacks of a privileged upbringing: her relaxed cosmopolitanism as the daughter of a diplomat was marred by the early suicide of her sister and the subsequent breakup with her parents. Personal independence and a 1968s flair fostered a demeanor resistant to exclusive commitment, until Toni López Lamadrid, the best companion and business partner, appeared in her life. In 1960s Barcelona, ​​Beatriz de Moura learned the trade at classic publishing houses such as Salvat and Gustavo Gili, before joining Lumen, the label run by her sister-in-law, and from there founding her own label with her first husband, Óscar Tusquets. As an editor, her extensive culture, personal charm, and knowledge of languages, along with her good taste and flair, allowed her to integrate into the network of the most influential European literary publishers, a network she would never abandon. This charm enabled her, early in her career, to acquire minor works by two greats of the boom, García Márquez and Vargas Llosa, which provided her with a certain financial stability. What follows—the desire to promote "a publishing house that was both entertaining, left-wing, and elegant," featuring top-tier authors—is already part of contemporary Spanish cultural history. In the early days of Tusquets, representatives of a literary, architectural, and visual modernity converged, placing Barcelona at the absolute forefront of contemporary Spain. Álvarez Maylín's work explains perfectly how this golden moment was possible, and reaffirms that it was no mirage.

Esther stayed with Lumen. Óscar and Beatriz began a new publishing venture in their living room: Tusquets. They presented it at the Price in 1969 and promoted it with the collaboration of their colleagues from the gauche divine and the innovative ideas of Moura, who opted for "a catalog capable of providing a new avant-garde vision, of combining the marginalized aspects of canonical, well-known, and renowned authors with the publications of newcomers, and of placing the debates demanded by Spain in the final years of Franco's regime at the center."

As is often the case, luck also played a role in the project's success. Tusquets published "one of Samuel Beckett's marginal works, Residua (1969), and that same year the playwright won the Nobel Prize for Literature." Beatriz's seductive powers did the rest. The editor convinced "the Colombian boy who arrived here with nothing but money and who had some great money" to publish Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor with Tusquets. That's how Gabriel García Márquez ended up at the publishing house. He was followed by Mario Vargas Llosa, Sergio Pitol, Carlos Fuentes...

Financial problems and censorship hampered a project that nonetheless managed to succeed. Carlota Álvarez Maylín delves into that success story in A Curiosity Without Barriers , a biography packed with experiences and anecdotes that's a quick read.