The Catalan domain stretches southward from Roussillon in the French Pyrenees, through the eastern edge of the Iberian Peninsula, down to the city of Alicante, and extends beyond the mainland to encompass the Balearic Islands and the Sardinian town of Alghero. The Catalan-speaking people boast an illustrious cultural tradition that began in the early Middle Ages, and the versatile Salvador Espriu is an outstanding representative of that tradition. The second of five children, he was born 10 July 1913 to Francesc Espriu i Torres and Escolàstica Castelló i Molas de Espriu, in Santa Coloma de Farners, a town in the Catalan hinterlands northeast of Barcelona. Though fond of his birthplace, he associated the happy memories of his childhood with the coastal village of Arenys de Mar, which lies straight south of Santa Coloma. Arenys, where the Espriu family used to vacation regularly during the summer, eventually was...