Javier Coma and the Boom of American Culture / Exhibitions / Visit us / Start
In 2020 the Library of Catalonia received the donation from the personal library of the critic Javier Coma and, for this reason, It presents this sample of documents that illustrates the fascination of the author for American culture on various sides (comics, cinema, black novel and jazz) as well as his intellectual contribution, in some cases pioneering in the Country.
Javier Coma Sanpere was born on November 12, 1939 in Barcelona. Son of the writer Vicenç Coma i Soley (1893-1979), he studied law in Barcelona. His first contacts with the American world were in the family and the library of the American house of Barcelona. As a result of his cinema hobbies and music, he took an active part in the Cine-Club Monterols and the Jazz Club Jazz; He was part of the organization of the 1st Barcelona Jazz Festival (1966) and began as a jazz critic in the RNE of Catalonia. After working for a few years in the advertising field, he decided to write on comics, influenced by American press strips and graphic novels, defending sequential art, beyond the comic books of comics. He closed this stage as a specialist in the ninth art with the editing of a dictionary on the American Golden Age, thanks to the collection he collected with newspaper clippings and collection volumes.
He was an avid reader who soon became interested in the black novel. He published articles and books rigorously documented on American authors and became an unquestionable promoter of this genre. In 1985 he directed the collection of black novel of Edicions 62 and in 1990 the Black collection (“The Genuina Novel Negra”) by Plaza & Janés.
From the 90’s onwards, it was thoroughly engaged in the analysis of American cinema and, in particular, that of the classic Hollywood period. His film texts were published in different formats, from collectibles to monographs, articles and collective works, in which he mainly treated Western, war, black or musical cinema. Part of his latest publishing production focused on the witch hunt in Hollywood and the phenomenon of Maccarthism, deeply studied in his books, one of which was awarded the 2005 “Film-History” Award.
Recognized defender of mass culture and firm disseminator of the classical American era, he completed his public activity in 2012.
The exhibition is organized into four thematic areas and collects both copies of the Coma Personal Library, as well as unique works of its vast bibliography that the Biblioteca de Catalunya preserves.
It shows the first appearances in the press as an author, his presence as an international expert and the text catalog published in 2010 under the pseudonym Aquiles Stampa. Also present is the relationship of Coma with comic book, black novel, cinema, film music and jazz. It is worth noting, in any case, the documentary variety and the working methodology used, as well as the constant intention of interconnecting the topics he knew.
The Library of Catalonia makes available to everyone this material from the Library of Javier Coma, a testament to its versatile trajectory around American culture, always with the aim of spreading it.
