INTRODUCTION
Joan Fuster y Ortells was born in Sueca (in the Ribera Baixa) on 23 November 1922. He died there on 21 June 1992. His family were almost all farmworkers. The first exception was his father –Joan Fuster Seguí–who learned the trade of a woodcarver and manufacturer of religious images in workshops in Valencia. Later, in the village, in addition to giving drawing classes in private centres, he worked in this trade, closely linked to the ecclesiastical world, which in any case must have been quite familiar to him, as he was a Carlist. Fuster’s father’s dedication to teaching provided him with a part of his secondary studies free of charge, which the family economy might not otherwise have been able to afford. His father’s political point of view also influenced him at an early age, although as Fuster himself said, his father was a “rather strange” Carlist, “a Carlist of popular origins, which is like a kind of right-wing anarchist”. His father also left him free to read whatever he wanted and could find in the libraries of his friends, with no ideological restrictions. The childhood of the future writer was, as he would recall many years later, the typical childhood of a village boy in his time, who spent most of the day –outside the inevitable time at school and at home–playing in the streets and squares. On the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Fuster was thirteen years old. In 1937, his father was imprisoned for eight months, and towards the end of the war, the future writer was almost sent to the front in one of the last Republican levies. It was a terrible period, in which Fuster found refuge in reading all kinds of papers, including the productions of the anarchist publishing houses, which had enjoyed so much life in Valencia, even during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. Once the war was over, his father became part of the management company that by government order ran the City Council of Sueca, until he was removed –as his son later recalled –for having defended the rights of some farmers against the owners of the land they were cultivating. Fuster was a youth member of the National Movement and then automatically enrolled, when he came of age, in the Falange, despite the fact that he had already abandoned any ideological link to Carlism, the National Movement and even, more gradually, the Catholic religion he was born into. Reading, reflecting and observing the situation distanced him from the environment to which he seemed destined, in an inner process that can hardly have been easy or comfortable for him. In 1943, Fuster was sent to University, thanks to the “moment of relative euphoria” his father’s trade underwent in the post-war period, when it was necessary to provide religious images for all the altars destroyed during the war. He studied Law in Valencia, and spent time searching through second-hand bookshops. He also became familiar with a relatively urban world. In the boarding house where he lodged, he met Josep Lluís Bausset, who introduced him, through his memoirs, to Valencianism prior to 1936. Fuster obtained his degree in Law in 1948, and then worked in a citrus export office and practiced as a lawyer for a short period of time, probably without much enthusiasm.
Starting out as a poet
Fuster, said Carles Salvador when he reviewed in surprise his first verses in a local newspaper, “is a poet who does not resemble any of the current Valencians”. This uniqueness was made even more evident on the publication of his books: Sobre Narcís (1948), Ales o mans (1949), Terra en la boca (1953) and Escrit per al silenci (1954). Set llibres de versos, published in 1987, gathers together a good part of Fuster’s poetic work.
And yet, voluntarily, at a given moment and for reasons that he himself explained later, Fuster stopped writing verses, or at least publishing them. Even when he wrote occasional verse, he changed his style and language altogether. This abandonment was the result of a complete change in attitude, that took him to an anti-lyrical poetry, inspired by anger and sarcasm. He had no wish to persevere in this either, perhaps because he was now a professional writer and this distanced him even further from a genre which was impossible to conceive with market-based criteria. Some of the many texts he wrote after 1968 (the date of Elegia a Rabelais), in catalogues and portfolios for plastic artists, could still be included in that anticonventional drift of Fuster’s poetry, often connected with the surrealist current that had interested him since he was young.
If he stopped writing poems after publishing several very decent collections, he had also stopped writing novels, a genre that he would have liked to cultivate and at which he had tried his hand, although the results did not satisfy him and he destroyed his work, as he wrote in 1958 in a letter to the publisher Joan Sales.
Profession–writer
In effect, the perspectives in life that he himself was opening up in the midst of difficulties were others, ultimately linked to the exercise of writing, because it was then that he began to be known as a poet, essayist and columnist, first in the journal from Alicante Verbo, of which he was co-director from 1946-56 –and as a complement of which he published, together with José Albi, an Antología del surrealismo español, 1952 –Almanaque de Las Provincias and in the Valencia newspapers Levante and Jornada. Of course, not all these involved the same kind of work. Verbo was the platform for his literary concerns, with no economic outlook, a means to feel immersed and related to the world of culture and books, to a large extent a separate world that connected him to what used to be called the “Republic of literature”, with poetry congresses and other gatherings of writers.
Literature, for Fuster and many other young people of that time and of other times, was a way out towards social integration, beyond the very narrow limits marked by the local environment. The Almanaque de Las Provincias, under the management, which was generous for our language, of Teodor Llorente i Falcó, was a platform in the same sense. Moreover, collaborating in newspapers, no matter how wretched or provincial they might be, was an imperceptible way in to other spheres, where an article might not only be published but even paid, and the demands of regularity–with his need for personal income –called for strict dedication, and provided, for those who wanted to think along those lines, a certain hope of professionalization. Initially, Fuster won a poetry prize convened by Levante –a morning newspaper of the National Movement in Valencia, where he was given the chance to publish some articles. He accepted the invitation and became a more or less regular contributor to the newspaper, and also to the evening paper Jornada, which belonged to the same media chain.
This working relationship did not imply political sympathy in Fuster, who in 1950 saw his first piece published in a magazine edited by Catalan exiles in America. This showed his position of absolute ideological independence from Francoism, something which continued over the years.
From 1961 his articles appeared in several newspapers in Barcelona: El Correo Catalán (1961-1966), El Noticiero Universal (1967-1971), Tele/eXprés (1969-1977), and La Vanguardia (1969-1984), and with more or less regularity, in some in Madrid: Informaciones (1972-1978), El País (1979-1986) and ABC. The newspapers in Valencia refused his articles after the publication of the book El País Valenciano (1962), against which there was a campaign of personal disqualification and even insults; this was not accidental, but rather was brought on by political motives, about which more information will be mentioned below. He was a permanent collaborator in certain weekly and monthly magazines, among which are Destino (up to 1971), Por Favor (1977-1978), Jano (1977-1981), Qué y Dónde (1979-1984), Serra d’Or (1959-1983), El Món (1981-1983), El Temps(1984-1985), etc. Some of these articles were published in book format.
In short, from a given time he became a professional writer. It was a risky decision that defined his life. Among other things, given that he did not have his own fortune and never held a more professional rank in the newspapers than that of collaborator, his income was never assured with the regularity that a fixed position in the media can provide. Independence in work would always pose a clear economic risk that at times turned into a threat.
Being professional forced him to accept numerous assignments as a writer. Among others, some travel guides–El País Valenciano (Barcelona, 1862), Valencia (Madrid, 1961), Alicante y la Costa Blanca (Barcelona, 1965), Ver el País Valenciano (Barcelona 1983) –and some scripts for television, such as the one he produced about Valencia for the Spanish Television series, Esta es mi tierra (1983). He even tried his hand, always by commission, at literature for children, such as the anthology Un món per a infants (1959) and a brief didactic narration about the cultivation of rice, the traditional crop in his village: Abans que el sol no creme (1969).
Not leaving Sueca
Another decision, just as fundamental as the former, was to continue living in Sueca instead of settling in a big city; everyone who at the time aspired to make their way into the world of literature and, in general, culture, moved to the city.
In Sueca, Fuster lived on the ground floor of number 10, Carrer de Sant Josep, in a three-storey building with a neo-Gothic façade, designed by the architect Bonaventura Ferrando Castells and built in the 1920s, which his family had inherited. Most of the writer’s life would be spent there. This was a place where the daily routine, for Fuster as an adult, was almost always the same. Fuster got up late, around noon, and also went to bed late. When he had no one to talk to, he would read or write, often accompanied by music, “the Italian musicians of the 17th and 18th centuries have an extraordinary relaxing virtue” he once said. Except for the occasional short trip –once to Alghero, once to France and much later to Germany, Greece, the United States of America, Canada and Italy, as well as numerous visits around the country –he would only leave home to run some errands in the town.
In this closed system, or almost closed, Monday was an extraordinary day. For a while, he would spend Mondays in Valencia, where he slept and stayed until Tuesday, to see friends or shop. But from the early 1960s, his stays in Valencia were reduced to a few hours in the morning, or in the morning and afternoon, to attend a literary gathering , buy books or take part in a meeting. Reducing the time he spent in Valencia in the early 1960s was the result of having to look after his parents, as he was an only child and lived alone with them. His mother died in 1965 and his father in 1966.
Fuster’s life was sedentary and regular, which fitted in well with his personal habits; reading and writing took up many hours. But being sedentary did not mean he was isolated. Right up to the end –when, for example, he spoke to Toni Mollà about the end of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe, in the excellent Conversas inacabadas – Fuster was extremely curious about everything that was going on in the world, about the news and social and cultural changes, which he followed through the newspapers and magazines he systematically read, on the radio and television, and with the large number of people who visited him. Until just a few months before his death, he refused to install a telephone at home. This, his refusal to open the door when he didn’t feel like it, and a progressive abandonment of epistolary correspondence, all preserved his intimacy.
In spite of being immersed in his work as an article writer and in the writing of his books, he devoted a great deal of time to conversation with people who wanted to talk to him – often without having asked for an appointment. It has often been said that his home was a permanent point of attraction for writers who were more or less well-known or aspiring to become known, politicians in the same circumstances, journalists, researchers and simply good people in the region who wanted to chat with him, have a book signed by him or simply be able to boast that they had spoken to him. As far as we know, it is absolutely true that this, and –apart from other effects –had a notable and positive impact on the work of various researchers and writers. This meant, for many years, that his agenda was full of “social” commitments. Sometimes lunches and dinners outside the home were followed by hours and hours of conversation, to the point of physical exhaustion; at other times there were long conversations at home, but which were also draining and dilated.
At some point, overwhelmed by the region’s political atmosphere, he even thought of leaving Sueca and Valencia. In the 1960s, he decided to study what was then called Philosophy and Literature, and then apply for a position as a lecturer at a European or American university. He did not insist too much on this, among other things because he did not find the facilities he had hoped for. The alternative would have been to settle in Barcelona, but this would have been a very risky adventure, full of incitements to dispersion, and in any case economically uncertain. With admirable caution, Fuster decided not to move from home.
Essays on cultural history
From 1954 to 1962 he collaborated with erudite articles in the Revista Valenciana de Filología. This defined a good part of Fuster’s academic and professional life. His essays on Ausiàs March, Vicent Ferrer, Jaume Roig and Isabel de Villena identify the readings and concerns that we see later cropped up again and again until the last years of his life. It was no longer only about writers from the best period of local literature; it was also about the stage we call Decadence, almost immediately after that moment of splendour. It was also in order to enter the world of fantasy, independent from scientific knowledge. It meant no longer questioning or glossing the permanent topics of poetry, the immediate readings or the topics of the present. In the colour supplement “Valencia” in the newspaper Levante, Fuster also published many articles related to these issues. The articles, both long and short, with or without a critical apparatus, built up a good part of Fuster’s research into the past. This was the source of a significant part of his first books, those which towards the end of his life took him into university teaching.
Essays and other prose works
There is also the more general essay, which is a form of intellectual examination, through which all kinds of facts are brought to light, with no distinction of times or geographies, building up a rich image of the world. These writings can be found in El descrèdit de la realitat (1955)– a cutting approach to the problems of plastic arts between realism and abstraction – Les originalitats (1956), Figures de temps (1957), Indagacions possibles (1958), Judicis finals (1960). In the prologue to Diccionari per a ociosos (1964) (translated into English as Dictionary for Idlers), Fuster described how he conceived some of the books mentioned: “I limit myself to gathering together an incoherent series of writings into a book, different in subject and of unequal length, which could all be classified within the elastic and modest genre of the essay”. To endow them with some kind of unity, he sometimes presented them as what they were, pages from a diary, or ass collection of aphorisms, or, as in the Diccionari, placing them in alphabetical order by taking the central topic of each one. Other books of Fuster’s essays are: Causar-se d’esperar (Barcelona, 1965), L’home, mesura de totes les coses (Barcelona, 1967), Consells, proverbis i insolències (Barcelona, 1968), Examen de consciència (Barcelona, 1968), and Babels i babilònies (Palma de Mallorca, 1972). Another genre that he was very successful at was the writing of diaries, although he did this – as far as we know – without providing any news about the daily events of his life or his environment. They were rather a succession of reflections and thoughts ordered regularly by the date on which they were written. The series published in 1969, under the title Dietario, 1952-1960, and the second volume of Obres Completes were decisive moments. Finally, there are the aphorisms, which sometimes appear isolated in the middle of more extensive works, and on other occasions are presented in series, like a succession of lightning strikes chained together, despite the fact that each one may enjoy its own existence and suggest the unformulated consequence of thousands of other thoughts. The last known example of this part of Fuster’s writing is Sagitari, published in 1984. The first was Judicis finals. In addition, in the 1960s he translated five books by Albert Camus, J. Falkberget and Ignazio Silone and a large number of prologues to works by others, which in some cases are significant interventions in the work of a given author of our literature (Salvat-Papasseit, Ramon Muntaner, the aforementioned introduction to Ausiàs March, Salvador Espriu, Josep Pla, Josep Carner, Vicent Andrés Estellés, Jaume Gassull, Joan Timoneda and Lluís Bernat). In addition, as an originator or advisor, Fuster’s work was of great intensity. He was one of the main promoters of the Historia del País Valenciano and also of a history of Catalonia directed by Joan Reglà. He was an advisor for the Gran Enciclopedia de la Región Valenciana and the Gran Enciclopedia Catalana and, for reasons of friendship, also several editorial collections. He was a jury member for various different literary prizes. He took part in the 1stCongress of the History of Valencia (1971) and directed several collections of editions of texts: the Lletra Menuda collection (1971-1980), the Bibliotheca Valentina (1972), the Bibliotheca Imago Mundi (1974), the Documentos de Cultura-Facsímil (1973-1977), Clásicos Albatros (1973) and the Biblioteca de Autores Valencianos–the former were private while the latter was a project by the Study and Research Institute of Valencia, of which he was a member. He directed the journal L’Espill, founded in 1978, whose list of content he designed himself. He was also the honorary president of the territorial council of Valencia at the 2ndInternational Congress of the Catalan Language (1986), and had already occupied the Valencian vice-presidency of the Congress of Catalan Culture (1977). In 1987 he took part in the commemorative ceremonies of the 2nd International Congress of Antifascist Writers (1937).
Starting out as a poet
Profession–writer
Not leaving Sueca
Essays on cultural history
Essays and other prose works
A SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Starting out as a poet
Fuster, said Carles Salvador when he reviewed in surprise his first verses in a local newspaper, “is a poet who does not resemble any of the current Valencians”. This uniqueness was made even more evident on the publication of his books: Sobre Narcís (1948), Ales o mans (1949), Terra en la boca (1953) and Escrit per al silenci (1954). Set llibres de versos, published in 1987, gathers together a good part of Fuster’s poetic work.
And yet, voluntarily, at a given moment and for reasons that he himself explained later, Fuster stopped writing verses, or at least publishing them. Even when he wrote occasional verse, he changed his style and language altogether. This abandonment was the result of a complete change in attitude, that took him to an anti-lyrical poetry, inspired by anger and sarcasm. He had no wish to persevere in this either, perhaps because he was now a professional writer and this distanced him even further from a genre which was impossible to conceive with market-based criteria. Some of the many texts he wrote after 1968 (the date of Elegia a Rabelais), in catalogues and portfolios for plastic artists, could still be included in that anticonventional drift of Fuster’s poetry, often connected with the surrealist current that had interested him since he was young.
If he stopped writing poems after publishing several very decent collections, he had also stopped writing novels, a genre that he would have liked to cultivate and at which he had tried his hand, although the results did not satisfy him and he destroyed his work, as he wrote in 1958 in a letter to the publisher Joan Sales.
Profession–writer
In effect, the perspectives in life that he himself was opening up in the midst of difficulties were others, ultimately linked to the exercise of writing, because it was then that he began to be known as a poet, essayist and columnist, first in the journal from Alicante Verbo, of which he was co-director from 1946-56 –and as a complement of which he published, together with José Albi, an Antología del surrealismo español, 1952 –Almanaque de Las Provincias and in the Valencia newspapers Levante and Jornada. Of course, not all these involved the same kind of work. Verbo was the platform for his literary concerns, with no economic outlook, a means to feel immersed and related to the world of culture and books, to a large extent a separate world that connected him to what used to be called the “Republic of literature”, with poetry congresses and other gatherings of writers.
Literature, for Fuster and many other young people of that time and of other times, was a way out towards social integration, beyond the very narrow limits marked by the local environment. The Almanaque de Las Provincias, under the management, which was generous for our language, of Teodor Llorente i Falcó, was a platform in the same sense. Moreover, collaborating in newspapers, no matter how wretched or provincial they might be, was an imperceptible way in to other spheres, where an article might not only be published but even paid, and the demands of regularity–with his need for personal income –called for strict dedication, and provided, for those who wanted to think along those lines, a certain hope of professionalization. Initially, Fuster won a poetry prize convened by Levante –a morning newspaper of the National Movement in Valencia, where he was given the chance to publish some articles. He accepted the invitation and became a more or less regular contributor to the newspaper, and also to the evening paper Jornada, which belonged to the same media chain.
This working relationship did not imply political sympathy in Fuster, who in 1950 saw his first piece published in a magazine edited by Catalan exiles in America. This showed his position of absolute ideological independence from Francoism, something which continued over the years.
From 1961 his articles appeared in several newspapers in Barcelona: El Correo Catalán (1961-1966), El Noticiero Universal (1967-1971), Tele/eXprés (1969-1977), and La Vanguardia (1969-1984), and with more or less regularity, in some in Madrid: Informaciones (1972-1978), El País (1979-1986) and ABC. The newspapers in Valencia refused his articles after the publication of the book El País Valenciano (1962), against which there was a campaign of personal disqualification and even insults; this was not accidental, but rather was brought on by political motives, about which more information will be mentioned below. He was a permanent collaborator in certain weekly and monthly magazines, among which are Destino (up to 1971), Por Favor (1977-1978), Jano (1977-1981), Qué y Dónde (1979-1984), Serra d’Or (1959-1983), El Món (1981-1983), El Temps(1984-1985), etc. Some of these articles were published in book format.
In short, from a given time he became a professional writer. It was a risky decision that defined his life. Among other things, given that he did not have his own fortune and never held a more professional rank in the newspapers than that of collaborator, his income was never assured with the regularity that a fixed position in the media can provide. Independence in work would always pose a clear economic risk that at times turned into a threat.
Being professional forced him to accept numerous assignments as a writer. Among others, some travel guides–El País Valenciano (Barcelona, 1862), Valencia (Madrid, 1961), Alicante y la Costa Blanca (Barcelona, 1965), Ver el País Valenciano (Barcelona 1983) –and some scripts for television, such as the one he produced about Valencia for the Spanish Television series, Esta es mi tierra (1983). He even tried his hand, always by commission, at literature for children, such as the anthology Un món per a infants (1959) and a brief didactic narration about the cultivation of rice, the traditional crop in his village: Abans que el sol no creme (1969).
Not leaving Sueca
Another decision, just as fundamental as the former, was to continue living in Sueca instead of settling in a big city; everyone who at the time aspired to make their way into the world of literature and, in general, culture, moved to the city.
In Sueca, Fuster lived on the ground floor of number 10, Carrer de Sant Josep, in a three-storey building with a neo-Gothic façade, designed by the architect Bonaventura Ferrando Castells and built in the 1920s, which his family had inherited. Most of the writer’s life would be spent there. This was a place where the daily routine, for Fuster as an adult, was almost always the same. Fuster got up late, around noon, and also went to bed late. When he had no one to talk to, he would read or write, often accompanied by music, “the Italian musicians of the 17th and 18th centuries have an extraordinary relaxing virtue” he once said. Except for the occasional short trip –once to Alghero, once to France and much later to Germany, Greece, the United States of America, Canada and Italy, as well as numerous visits around the country –he would only leave home to run some errands in the town.
In this closed system, or almost closed, Monday was an extraordinary day. For a while, he would spend Mondays in Valencia, where he slept and stayed until Tuesday, to see friends or shop. But from the early 1960s, his stays in Valencia were reduced to a few hours in the morning, or in the morning and afternoon, to attend a literary gathering , buy books or take part in a meeting. Reducing the time he spent in Valencia in the early 1960s was the result of having to look after his parents, as he was an only child and lived alone with them. His mother died in 1965 and his father in 1966.
Fuster’s life was sedentary and regular, which fitted in well with his personal habits; reading and writing took up many hours. But being sedentary did not mean he was isolated. Right up to the end –when, for example, he spoke to Toni Mollà about the end of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe, in the excellent Conversas inacabadas – Fuster was extremely curious about everything that was going on in the world, about the news and social and cultural changes, which he followed through the newspapers and magazines he systematically read, on the radio and television, and with the large number of people who visited him. Until just a few months before his death, he refused to install a telephone at home. This, his refusal to open the door when he didn’t feel like it, and a progressive abandonment of epistolary correspondence, all preserved his intimacy.
In spite of being immersed in his work as an article writer and in the writing of his books, he devoted a great deal of time to conversation with people who wanted to talk to him – often without having asked for an appointment. It has often been said that his home was a permanent point of attraction for writers who were more or less well-known or aspiring to become known, politicians in the same circumstances, journalists, researchers and simply good people in the region who wanted to chat with him, have a book signed by him or simply be able to boast that they had spoken to him. As far as we know, it is absolutely true that this, and –apart from other effects –had a notable and positive impact on the work of various researchers and writers. This meant, for many years, that his agenda was full of “social” commitments. Sometimes lunches and dinners outside the home were followed by hours and hours of conversation, to the point of physical exhaustion; at other times there were long conversations at home, but which were also draining and dilated.
At some point, overwhelmed by the region’s political atmosphere, he even thought of leaving Sueca and Valencia. In the 1960s, he decided to study what was then called Philosophy and Literature, and then apply for a position as a lecturer at a European or American university. He did not insist too much on this, among other things because he did not find the facilities he had hoped for. The alternative would have been to settle in Barcelona, but this would have been a very risky adventure, full of incitements to dispersion, and in any case economically uncertain. With admirable caution, Fuster decided not to move from home.
Essays on cultural history
From 1954 to 1962 he collaborated with erudite articles in the Revista Valenciana de Filología. This defined a good part of Fuster’s academic and professional life. His essays on Ausiàs March, Vicent Ferrer, Jaume Roig and Isabel de Villena identify the readings and concerns that we see later cropped up again and again until the last years of his life. It was no longer only about writers from the best period of local literature; it was also about the stage we call Decadence, almost immediately after that moment of splendour. It was also in order to enter the world of fantasy, independent from scientific knowledge. It meant no longer questioning or glossing the permanent topics of poetry, the immediate readings or the topics of the present. In the colour supplement “Valencia” in the newspaper Levante, Fuster also published many articles related to these issues. The articles, both long and short, with or without a critical apparatus, built up a good part of Fuster’s research into the past. This was the source of a significant part of his first books, those which towards the end of his life took him into university teaching.
Essays and other prose works
There is also the more general essay, which is a form of intellectual examination, through which all kinds of facts are brought to light, with no distinction of times or geographies, building up a rich image of the world. These writings can be found in El descrèdit de la realitat (1955)– a cutting approach to the problems of plastic arts between realism and abstraction – Les originalitats (1956), Figures de temps (1957), Indagacions possibles (1958), Judicis finals (1960). In the prologue to Diccionari per a ociosos (1964) (translated into English as Dictionary for Idlers), Fuster described how he conceived some of the books mentioned: “I limit myself to gathering together an incoherent series of writings into a book, different in subject and of unequal length, which could all be classified within the elastic and modest genre of the essay”. To endow them with some kind of unity, he sometimes presented them as what they were, pages from a diary, or ass collection of aphorisms, or, as in the Diccionari, placing them in alphabetical order by taking the central topic of each one. Other books of Fuster’s essays are: Causar-se d’esperar (Barcelona, 1965), L’home, mesura de totes les coses (Barcelona, 1967), Consells, proverbis i insolències (Barcelona, 1968), Examen de consciència (Barcelona, 1968), and Babels i babilònies (Palma de Mallorca, 1972). Another genre that he was very successful at was the writing of diaries, although he did this – as far as we know – without providing any news about the daily events of his life or his environment. They were rather a succession of reflections and thoughts ordered regularly by the date on which they were written. The series published in 1969, under the title Dietario, 1952-1960, and the second volume of Obres Completes were decisive moments. Finally, there are the aphorisms, which sometimes appear isolated in the middle of more extensive works, and on other occasions are presented in series, like a succession of lightning strikes chained together, despite the fact that each one may enjoy its own existence and suggest the unformulated consequence of thousands of other thoughts. The last known example of this part of Fuster’s writing is Sagitari, published in 1984. The first was Judicis finals. In addition, in the 1960s he translated five books by Albert Camus, J. Falkberget and Ignazio Silone and a large number of prologues to works by others, which in some cases are significant interventions in the work of a given author of our literature (Salvat-Papasseit, Ramon Muntaner, the aforementioned introduction to Ausiàs March, Salvador Espriu, Josep Pla, Josep Carner, Vicent Andrés Estellés, Jaume Gassull, Joan Timoneda and Lluís Bernat). In addition, as an originator or advisor, Fuster’s work was of great intensity. He was one of the main promoters of the Historia del País Valenciano and also of a history of Catalonia directed by Joan Reglà. He was an advisor for the Gran Enciclopedia de la Región Valenciana and the Gran Enciclopedia Catalana and, for reasons of friendship, also several editorial collections. He was a jury member for various different literary prizes. He took part in the 1stCongress of the History of Valencia (1971) and directed several collections of editions of texts: the Lletra Menuda collection (1971-1980), the Bibliotheca Valentina (1972), the Bibliotheca Imago Mundi (1974), the Documentos de Cultura-Facsímil (1973-1977), Clásicos Albatros (1973) and the Biblioteca de Autores Valencianos–the former were private while the latter was a project by the Study and Research Institute of Valencia, of which he was a member. He directed the journal L’Espill, founded in 1978, whose list of content he designed himself. He was also the honorary president of the territorial council of Valencia at the 2ndInternational Congress of the Catalan Language (1986), and had already occupied the Valencian vice-presidency of the Congress of Catalan Culture (1977). In 1987 he took part in the commemorative ceremonies of the 2nd International Congress of Antifascist Writers (1937).