Manuel de Pedrolo i Molina (; 1918 – 1990) was a Catalan author of novels, short stories, poetry and plays. He's mostly known for his sci-fi novel ''Mecanoscrit del segon origen'' ('' Typescript of the Second Origin'').

Mini-biography

Manuel de Pedrolo was born in 1918 in L'Aranyó, in the Segarra comarca (county), in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

. After the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

he settled down in

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, where he worked at a great number of jobs while writing as a background activity. From 1974, he was able to devote himself to literature, creating works, translating, and doing other minor editorial tasks. He died in Barcelona, in 1990, after suffering a long illness.

Work

Despite the fact that he is considered one of the most ambitious writers in Catalan, having cultivated virtually all literary genres, Manuel de Pedrolo is especially known for his vast production of prose, with more than 72 novels published between 1949 and 1985, many of which were

detective novels Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal investigation, investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around ...

. Most of them were thoroughly censored under the following terms: " catalanism, political opinions, religion, sexual morality and indecorous language". He also translated into Catalan works by

John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his U.S.A. (trilogy), ''U.S.A.'' trilogy. Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a ...

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

and

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

. Throughout his life, he had several run-ins with Spanish fascists around censorship issues. He also received many awards and was bestowed with the highest honors in Catalan literature.

''Mecanoscrit del segon origen''

Pedrolo's name will remain forever attached to the title of his most popular work, his first attempt at the sci-fi genre, ''Mecanoscrit del segon origen'' ("Typescript of the Second Origin"). First published in 1974, it became the most broadly disseminated Catalan fiction book in the following decade, with 26 editions and more than 270,000 copies sold in 1986.Prologue by Francesc Vallverdú to a 1986 special edition for La Caixa. The novel narrates the story of two children from a little country village named Benaura in Catalonia, Spain. Alba, a fourteen-year-old girl, and Dídac, a black nine-year-old boy, become the two only remaining humans on Earth after they accidentally survive an alien holocaust that eradicates all mammal life on the planet. As Alba and Dídac bravely recover from the catastrophe, they not only insist on living in a post-apocalyptic world, inhabited by myriads of corpses and deranged, psychotic survivors, but they also take up the mission of preserving human culture and repopulating the Earth. Although the novel was not addressed to youngsters, the dramatic and yet romantically attractive position of the main characters made the ''Mecanoscrit'' very popular among teenagers, and even though it is compulsory reading in many Catalan highschools today, many young people will have already read it at an earlier age. From an adult perspective, Alba & Dídac's will to survive makes this novel a wonderful chant to life and hope. The well-documented scientific data and the use of cultured-but-readable language are just two of the reasons for the success of this book, which has had a deep impact on Catalan culture.

Notes

References

All contents in this article come from different editions of Manuel de Pedrolo's books: *Manuel de Pedrolo: Mecanoscrit del segon Origen. Barcelona: Edicions 62, 1986. (A special edition for La Caixa, with a foreword by Francesc Vallverdú.) *Manuel de Pedrolo: Mecanoscrit del segon Origen. Barcelona: Edicions 62, 1996. (Edited by Carme Ballús Molina.)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedrolo, Manuel de 1918 births 1990 deaths People from Segarra Catalan-language writers Catalan-language poets Novelists from Catalonia Writers from Barcelona Speculative fiction writers from Catalonia Short story writers from Catalonia Poets from Catalonia Translators to Catalan Translators from Catalonia 20th-century Spanish translators 20th-century Spanish novelists 20th-century Spanish poets 20th-century Spanish male writers Spanish male poets Male novelists 20th-century short story writers