Luis Racionero i Grau (15 January 1940 – 8 March 2020)
was a Spanish essayist. He was born in

la Seu d'Urgell La Seu d'Urgell (; , formerly ''Urgell'') is a town located in Alt Urgell county in Alt Pirineu, Catalonia, Spain. The town is also the head of its judicial district and the seat of the Bishop of Urgell, one of the co-princes of Andorra. It is ...

Lleida Lleida (, ; ; '' see below'') is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital and largest town in Segrià county, the Ponent region and the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It ...

, and studied engineering and economics at the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

and urban studies at the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

. He was director of Spain's national library and of the Spanish College (''Colegio de España'') in Paris. He worked with newspapers including ''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'', ''

La Vanguardia ' (; , ) is a Spanish daily newspaper founded in 1881. It is printed in Spanish and, since 3 May 2011, also in Catalan. It has its headquarters in Barcelona and is Catalonia's leading newspaper. Despite being mostly distributed in Catalonia, ...

'' and

Mundo Deportivo ''Mundo Deportivo'' (; ) is a Spanish nationwide daily sports newspaper published in Barcelona. History and profile ''Mundo Deportivo'' was first published on 1 February 1906, as a weekly newspaper, and since 1929 daily. It is the oldest sports ...

. He wrote both in Catalan and in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

. In 1999 he won the

Fernando Lara Novel Award The Fernando Lara Novel Award () is given annually in Spain by the José Manuel Lara Foundation and the Planeta publishing house to an unpublished novel in the Spanish language. The publication of the finalist (runner-up) work is not expected, al ...

for his then-unpublished work ''La sonrisa de la Gioconda''.

Works

* ''Filosofías del underground'' (''Philosophies of the underground''), 1977 * ''Sistemas de ciudades y ordenación del territorio'' (''Systems of cities and planning''), 1978 * ''Leonardo da Vinci'', 1978 * ''Cercamón'', 1981 * ''Del paro al ocio'' (''From unemployment to leisure''), 1983 * ''Textos de estética taoísta'' (''Texts of Taoist aesthetics''), 1983 * ''El Mediterráneo y los bárbaros del Norte'' (''The Mediterranean and the barbarians of the North'') (1985 and 1996) * ''La forja de l'exili'' (''The forging of the Exiles'') (1985) * ''Los ángeles cuánticos'' (''Quantum Angels'') (1986) * ''Arte y ciencia'' (''Art and Science'') (1988) * ''El Arte de Vivir'' (''The Art of Living'') (1989) * ''Florencia de los Médicis'' (''Florence of the Medicis'') (1990) * ''Atenas de Pericles'' (''Athens of Pericles'') (1993) * ''Oriente y Occidente: Filosofía oriental y dilemas occidentales'' (''East and West: Eastern Philosophy and Western dilemmas'') (1993) * ''El arte de escribir'' (''The art of writing'') (1995) * ''La cárcel del amor'' (''Prison of Love'') (1996) * ''El genio del lugar'' (''The genius of the place'') (1997) * ''Guía Práctica para Insatisfechos: Valores, Política y Futuro'' (''Practical Guide to Values, Politics and the Future'') (1997) * ''El progreso decadente'' (''Decadent Progress'') (2000) ( Espasa - Essay Prize, Premio Espasa de Ensayo) * ''El pecado original'' (''Original Sin'') (2001) * ''La Costa Brava recuperada'' (''Costa Brava recovered'') (2000) * ''El alquimista trovador: una fascinante novela histórica sobre Rai Mundo Lulio'' (''Trovador the alchemist: a fascinating historical novel about World Lulio Rai'') (2003) * ''La sonrisa de la Gioconda'' (''Mona Lisa's smile'') (2004) * ''Conversaciones con Pla y Dalí'' (''Conversations with Pla and Dalí'') (2004) * ''El libro de los pequeños placeres'' (''The Book of Small Pleasures'') (2005) * ''Los complejos de la derecha'' (''The complex on the right'') (2006) * ''Leonardo Da Vinci: genio del Renacimiento'' (''Leonardo Da Vinci: genius of the Renaissance'') (2006) * ''Sobrevivir a un gran amor seis veces -Memorias-'' (2009)

References

1940 births 2020 deaths People from La Seu d'Urgell Spanish essayists Spanish expatriates in France Spanish male essayists University of Barcelona alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni 20th-century Spanish male writers 21st-century Spanish male writers Spanish expatriates in the United States {{Spain-writer-stub