View source for Enric Valor i Vives

{{Short description|Valencian writer}}
[[File:Enric Valor Plaque at Universitat de València.JPG|right|thumb|250px|A plaque to Valor i Vives at the [[University of Valencia]].]]
[[File:Enric Valor Picanya.jpg|thumb|Statue of Enric Valor in [[Picanya]], sculptured by the artist César Marco in 2006.]]
'''Enric Valor i Vives''' ({{IPA|ca-valencia|enˈriɡ vaˈloɾ}}; 1911 in [[Castalla]], [[province of Alicante|Alicante]], [[Spain]] – 2000 in [[Valencia (city in Spain)|Valencia]], Spain) was a [[Valencians|Valencian]] narrator and grammarian who made one of the most important contributions to the re-collection and recovery of [[Valencian language|Valencian]] lexicography and its standardization in the [[Valencian Country]], [[Spain]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Four Valencian Fairy Tales: "The Mother of the Fishes", "The Seamstress and the Locksmith", "Abella" and "The Love of the Oranges Three" |publisher=eHumanista |year=2020 |location=Santa Barbara, California |pages=2–3 |issn=1540-5877}}</ref>

==Biography==
Enric Valor was born in 1911,  the son of an affluent family from [[Castalla]], in the Valencian [[comarca]] of ''l'[[Alcoià]]''. In 1930, at the age of nineteen, he became a journalist in [[Alicante]] writing in the [[satire|satirical]] newspaper ''El Tio Cuc'', in Valencian. During the [[Second Spanish Republic]] he started to become politically active. His main demand was for [[autonomous communities of Spain|autonomous status]] for the [[Valencian Country]]. He was also at this time working in the [[Valencia, Spain|city of Valencia]] in the nationalist [[newspaper]]s  ''La República de les Lletres'', ''El Camí'' and ''El País Valencià''. When the [[Spanish Civil War]] broke out he supported the Spanish Republic.

[[Francoist Spain|After the war]], he cut back on his political activities to concentrate on [[literature]]. At the beginning of the 1950s he started to compile "''[[rondalles]]''", a type of [[Folk culture|folk]] narrative, which were published as ''Rondalles valencianes'' (1950–1958). During the 1960s he returned to underground political activities involving Valencian [[nationalism]] and, as a result, he became a [[political prisoner]] of [[Francisco Franco]]'s [[Spanish State]] from 1966 to 1968. Once out of prison he founded almost the first [[magazine]] in Valencian in the postwar period; ''Gorg'' ("Whirl", in Valencian). When the Francoist State ended, Enric Valor was able to spread freely his opinions and literary works. He became honoured with many important literary and linguistic awards from all over the ''[[Països Catalans]]''. During the 1990s there was a move among some Valencian cultural groups to propose Valor as a candidate for the [[Nobel Prize]] in Literature, but it didn't come to fruit.

Valor then died in 2000.

==Linguistic works==

His first linguistic work was in the weekly magazine ''El Tio Cuc'' based in [[Alicante]]. He was contributing to the development of the Catalan-Valencian-Balearic Dictionary (such a Catalan inter-dialectal dictionary) under the directorship of [[Francesc de Borja i Moll]], which included a Southern Valencian [[lexicon]]. Like Carles Salvador and [[Sanchis Guarner]], he was one of the principal promoters of the standardisation of Valencian by means of works such as ''Curs de la llengua valenciana'' (''Gorg'', 1961), ''Millorem el llenguatge'' (1971), and ''Curso medio de gramática catalana referida especialmente al País Valenciano'' (1973).

In 1983 he released ''La flexió verbal'' where he summarized the widely dialectised Valencian verbs. This work became the principal reference for the normative use of verbs, and is used as essential teaching material for Valencian pupils.

==Literary works==

His most known work is ''Rondalles valencianes'' (1950–1958), where 36 valencian popular tales are collected as a literary narration. Other works with a similar style are ''Narracions de la Foia de Castalla'' (1953), and ''Meravelles i picardies'' (1964–1970).

Valor was also a writer. His first novel was ''L'ambició d'Aleix'' which was started between the 1940s and 1950s, but it was being re-written until its release in 1960. Perhaps his most important novel work is ''Cicle de Cassana'' which is made up of three novels: ''Sense la terra promesa'' (1960), ''Temps de batuda'' (1983), and ''Enllà de l'horitzó'' (1991). The ''Cicle de Cassana'' trilogy aims for the regaining of collective memory between 1916 and 1939. In 1982 he published ''La idea de l'emigrant''.

==Awards and honors==

* 1983, Sanchis Guarner's Award (''Premi Sanchis Guarner''), from the Valencia Province Council.
* 1985, Valencian Arts Award (''Premi de les Lletres Valencianes'') from Valencia City Council.
* 1986, Member of the Philological Department in the ''[[Institut d'Estudis Catalans]]''.
* 1987, ''Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes'' (Catalan Arts Honored Award) from the ''Òmnium Cultural de Barcelona''.
* 1987, Member of the Advisory Board in the Interuniversitary Institute of Valencian Philology (''Institut Interuniversitari de Filologia Valenciana'').
* 1993, Honoris Causa Doctor by the [[Universitat de València]].
* 1993, Saint George's Cross (''[[Creu de Sant Jordi]]'') from the ''[[Generalitat de Catalunya]]''.
* 1996, ''Miquelet d'Honor'' from the ''Societat Coral El Micalet'', de Valencia.
* 1997, ''Premi Cavanilles'' from the Valencian Institute of Nature and Hiking (''Institut Valencià d'Excursionisme i Natura'').
* 1998, Honoris Causa Doctor by the [[University of the Balearic Islands|Universitat de les Illes Balears]].
* 1999, Honoris Causa Doctor by the [[Universitat Jaume I]] from Castelló.
* 1999, Honoris Causa Doctor by the [[Universitat d'Alacant]].
* 1999, Honoris Causa Doctor by the [[Universitat Politècnica de València]].

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [http://www.bullent.net/llibres/llibres.asp?Col=Rondalles%20Valencianes Rondalles Valencianes d'Enric Valor]
* {{Find a Grave|7315986}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valor i Vives, Enric}}
[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Alcoià]]
[[Category:Writers from the Valencian Community]]
[[Category:Catalan-language writers]]
[[Category:Linguists from Catalonia]]
[[Category:Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes winners]]
[[Category:Members of the Institute for Catalan Studies]]