Enric Valor i Vives

2.1. Early Life and Education

Enric Valor was born on August 22, 1911, in Castalla, a town in the Alcoià comarca of the Province of Alicante, Spain. He came from an affluent family. By the age of 19, in 1930, Valor began his career as a journalist.

2.2. Journalism and Early Career

Valor started his journalistic endeavors in Alicante, contributing to El Tio Cuc, a satirical newspaper published in Valencian. During this period, he honed his writing skills, learning Valencian orthography and grammar, despite his early contributions sometimes being written in a "Spanish-ized" Catalan with spelling errors. He later moved to the city of Valencia, where he worked for nationalist newspapers such as La República de les Lletres, El Camí, and El País Valencià.

2.3. Political Activism and Imprisonment

During the Second Spanish Republic, Valor became increasingly involved in political activities. His primary political objective was to achieve autonomous status for the Valencian Community. When the Spanish Civil War erupted, he actively supported the Spanish Republic.

Following the war, with the establishment of the Franco regime, Valor initially reduced his overt political engagement to focus on literature. However, in the 1960s, he resumed his involvement in underground political activities related to Valencian nationalism. This led to his arrest and imprisonment as a political prisoner under Francisco Franco's dictatorship from 1966 to 1968. His unwavering commitment to his ideals was evident, as he reportedly stated upon his release that "nothing was learned," indicating his steadfast resolve despite his incarceration.

2.4. Later Life and Recognition

After his release from prison, Enric Valor continued his work, notably participating in the founding of Gorg (meaning "Whirl" in Valencian), one of the first Valencian-language magazines to be published in the post-war period. With the end of Franco's dictatorship, Valor was finally able to freely express his opinions and disseminate his literary and linguistic works. He received numerous significant literary and linguistic awards from across the Catalan-speaking territories. In the 1990s, there was a movement among some Valencian cultural groups to nominate Valor for the Nobel Prize in Literature, though this initiative did not come to fruition before his death.

2.5. Death

Enric Valor i Vives passed away suddenly on January 13, 2000. His death marked the end of a prolific career dedicated to the Valencian language and culture.

3.1. Lexicography and Dictionary Work

Valor's earliest linguistic contributions appeared in the weekly magazine El Tio Cuc in Alicante. He played a crucial role in the development of the Catalan-Valencian-Balearic Dictionary, an inter-dialectal dictionary of Catalan, under the directorship of Francesc de Borja i Moll. His specific contribution involved compiling and incorporating a significant amount of lexicon from the Southern Valencian regions, enriching the dictionary's scope. His literary works, such as Rondalles valencianes, also served as a rich source of vocabulary.

3.2. Standardization of Valencian

Alongside figures like Carles Salvador and Manuel Sanchis Guarner, Enric Valor was a principal promoter of the standardization of the Valencian language. He authored several influential works that became essential teaching materials and references for Valencian speakers. These include:

• Curs de la llengua valenciana (1961), published in the magazine Gorg.
• Millorem el llenguatge (1971), which translates to "Let's Improve the Language."
• Curso medio de gramática catalana referida especialmente al País Valenciano (1973), a medium course on Catalan grammar specifically tailored to the Valencian Country.

In 1983, Valor published La flexió verbal (Verbal Inflection), a comprehensive work that systematically summarized the widely dialectized Valencian verbs. This book became the primary reference for the normative use of verbs in Valencian and continues to be used as essential teaching material for students in the Valencian Community.

4.1. Folktales (Rondalles)

Valor's most widely recognized literary contribution is Rondalles valencianes (Valencian Folktales), published between 1950 and 1958. This collection compiles and retells 36 popular Valencian oral tales, transforming them into literary narratives. Other works written in a similar style include Narracions de la Foia de Castalla (Tales from the Foia de Castalla), published in 1953, and Meravelles i picardies (Wonders and Mischiefs), published between 1964 and 1970.

4.2. Novels

Valor was also a notable novelist. His first novel, L'ambició d'Aleix (Aleix's Ambition), was begun between the 1940s and 1950s but underwent extensive rewriting before its eventual publication in 1960.

Perhaps his most important novelistic achievement is the Cicle de Cassana (Cassana Cycle), a trilogy comprising three novels:

• Sense la terra promesa (Without the Promised Land) (1960)
• Temps de batuda (Time of the Round-up) (1983)
• Enllà de l'horitzó (Beyond the Horizon) (1991)

The Cicle de Cassana trilogy was written with the aim of recovering the collective memory of the period between 1916 and 1939, which had been suppressed and obscured under the dictatorship. Additionally, Valor published the novel La idea de l'emigrant (The Idea of the Emigrant) in 1982.