Carlos Barral was perhaps the most important Spanish publisher and editor during the second half of the twentieth century; he also translated the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke into Spanish and wrote three volumes of memoirs, a novel, travel books, and several articles and essays on literary topics. However, Barral considered himself, above all, a poet. Along with the poets Jaime Gil de Biedma and José Agustín Goytisolo and the critic José María Castellet, he formed the nucleus of the literary group known as the Escuela de Barcelona (Barcelona School). Barral was also an important poetic voice of the Generación del 50 (Generation of 1950), whose members include Angel González, José Angel Valente, Francisco Brines, and Gloria Fuertes.

Barral was born on 2 June 1928 into a middle-class Catalonian family in Barcelona, where he lived and worked for his entire life...