Francesc Vallverdú (Barcelona, 1935-2014) was a poet, sociolinguist, literary critique and translator. He worked as a chief editor and editorial consultant.

He is considered one of the main poets of the Catalan social realism movement in poetry, with titles such as Com llances (1961), awarded the Joan Salvat-Papasseit, Cada paraula un vidre (1968), awarded the Carles Riba, Somni, insomni (1971), Retorn a Bílbilis (1974), awarded the Ausiàs March from Gandia, Leviatan (1984), Encalçar el vent (1995), and many more. He also introduced sociolinguistics into the Catalan speaking territories, with works such as L'escriptor català i el problema de la llengua (1968), Dues llengües: dues funcions? (1970), El fet lingüístic com a fet social (1973), awarded the Octubre-Joan Fuster, and L'ús del català: un futur controvertit (1990), among others. In 2009 he published his complete poetic works, Temps sense treva.

He worked as linguistic consultant at the Corporació Catalana de Ràdio i Televisió [Catalan national radio & TV] (1985-2006) and at the Gran Larousse català (1987-1993). He was manager of the Enciclopèdia de la llengua catalana (1999-2002), one of the founders of the Grup Català de Sociolingüística [Catalan group for sociolinguistics] and chief editor of its yearbook, Treballs de Sociolingüística catalana (1977-2002).

He was member of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (philology department) and member of honour of Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana (Association of Catalan Language Writers, AELC).



Page by Josep Miàs for AELC.
Documentation: Francesc Vallverdú.
Photographs from the author's personal archive.
Translated by Josep Miàs.