Classic Chandler translations published by Barral Editores (Barcelona)

After nearly twenty years of pioneering editorial work at Seix Barral, poet and editor Carlos Barral left the company and founded his own, Barral Editores, in 1970. Barral quickly established his own catalogue, which included new collections and new translations. These works were distributed widely via the collection Ediciones de bolsillo, created under Distribuciones de Enlace, a joint venture of Barral and other Spanish publishing houses. By 1978, when Barral Editores ceased publishing, Carlos Barral had made his mark: many of the translations he commissioned were used widely for many years and several were considered “classic” versions. This is the case of the four Marlowe novels (The Big Sleep; Farewell, My Lovely; The Little Sister and The Long Goodbye) published in the Serie negra policial in 1972 and 1973. Josep Elías’s translation of Farewell, My Lovely is a unique example of intensification of slang at a time when the harsh, autocratic Franco regime was slowly loosening its censorial grip. However, the other three translations are much less remarkable: two are plagiarisms and one is an indirect translation from a French target text. I will describe and explain the sociocultural context in which these translations took place in 1972-73, and also the context in which later editions became massively popular during the noir novel publishing boom in post-Franco democratic Spain.