Còmplices per la llengua

The writer Josep Pla (1897-1981) and the linguist Francesc de B. Moll (1903-1991) were united by the respect and admiration they felt for each other and by a current of deep cordiality. As Josefina Salord, curator of the volume, explains, from the time they met, in the spring of 1948, "they maintained an intermittent relationship and a sustained friendship until the end of their lives". What united them most was the shared passion for language; Moll endeavored to complete the dictionary that most widely portrays its richness and dialectal variety, and Pla tried to contribute to Moll's enormous task with all kinds of supports. The present edition of the correspondence preserved between these two fundamental figures of our culture (forty-six letters between 1948 and 1979) reveals the emotional intensity of their relationship and exposes a virtually unknown facet of Plan: that of valedor a ultrança of the Catalan-Valencian-Balearic dictionary. In addition to the letters between the two, the twelve cross-letters between 1961 and 1965 with the then mayor of Barcelona, Josep M. de Porcioles, are also published, which Pla managed to contribute to financing the restoration of the first two volumes of dictionary The volume is enriched by the edition of the nine writings in which Pla spoke publicly about Moll (including the homonym he dedicated to him) and four of Moll's writings dedicated to Pla, one of which has been previously unpublished.