José Espasa Anguera

Who was José Espasa Anguera?

José Espasa Anguera was a Spanish publisher. He is most famous for having been the driving force behind the prestigious Enciclopedia Espasa.

Coming from a very humble rural family, and still a child, he had to move to Barcelona. There he first was a laborer in a demolition site for the walls of Barcelona. When he was 18 he accepted a job as a paper delivery boy. He was fascinated with the book trade, and learned as much as he could about it. In 1860, he risked his modest savings to establish a small subscription center, the precursor of the Espasa-Calpe publishing house. In this period, under the trade name Espasa Hermanos, published the Diccionari de la llengua catalana by Laberinia. In 1875, the Poesias catalanas by Federico Soler, were published, and became the most notable Catalan poetry publication of the era. Mr. Espasa went on to hire the most popular writers of the day. In 1881, he reached an agreement with his brother-in-law, Manuel Salvat to form a new company, Espasa y Compañía. In 1886, they left their spacious location on Aribau Street to a much larger building on Cortes Street.