Editing Mercè Rodoreda (section)

===Youth (1921-1938)===
After the wedding, the couple went to Paris on a honeymoon, and then they settled in a house on Zaragoza Street.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |date=2008-07-08 |title=Mercè Rodoreda |url=http://www.tvcatalunya.com/aleph/rodoreda/cronolog.htm |access-date=2021-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708232433/http://www.tvcatalunya.com/aleph/rodoreda/cronolog.htm |archive-date=2008-07-08 }}</ref> Her husband had gone to Argentina when he was very young and had returned with a small fortune.

On July 23, 1929, their only son, Jordi Gurguí i Rodoreda, was born. From that moment on, Mercè Rodoreda began to do literary tests, to get rid of the economic and social dependency that the monotonous married life gave her. That is how she began to consider writing as a profession.<ref name=":3" /> Every day she locked herself for a while in a blue [[dovecote]] that was in Manuel Angelon's maternal house, which possibly later served as an inspiration to include the dovecote in ''[[The Time of the Doves]]''.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |journal=Universitat Oberta de Catalunya |title=Mercè Rodoreda - Autors a lletrA - La literatura catalana a internet |url=https://lletra.uoc.edu/ca/autor/merce-rodoreda |language=ca}}</ref> During that time, she wrote verses, a theatrical comedy (which remains defunct), and a novel.<ref name=":4" /> Meanwhile, the [[Second Spanish Republic|Second Republic]] was proclaimed.

====Second Spanish Republic====
In 1931 she began to take classes at the Dalmau Lyceum, where she improved her knowledge of language under the guidance of the pedagogue, linguist and esperantist Delfí Dalmau i Enero, who greatly influenced her and encouraged her to train, and with whom a bond of friendship developed.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Mercadal |first=Neus Real |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l55lZCBJRD4C&q=%22S%C3%B3c+una+dona+honrada%3F%22&pg=PA33 |title=''Mercè Rodoreda, l'obra de preguerra'' |date=2005 |publisher=L'Abadia de Montserrat |isbn=978-84-8415-712-0 |language=ca}}</ref> Rodoreda showed Dalmau what she wrote and he encouraged her to make these first texts public. According to Dalmau, Mercè Rodoreda was an exceptional student, possessing spiritual fulfillment and a promising literary soul.<ref name=":5" /> This admiration led Dalmau to ask her to be one of the counterparts in her work ''Polémica'', An Apology for Catalan and Esperanto; she answered affirmatively and the piece was published in 1934.<ref name=":5" /> As the teacher Dalmau recognized, this work had also been influenced by Rodoreda's observations.<ref name=":5" />

In 1932, the first novel by Mercè Rodoreda entitled ''Am I an honored woman?'' and also some stories for various newspapers. The work went almost unnoticed until it was nominated for the ''Crexells Prize'' in 1933, although the winner of that year was Carles Soldevila.<ref name=":5" /> Also in that year of 1932, on October 20, she published an interview with the actress Maria Vila in the ''Mirador'' magazine.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Biblioteca de Catalunya  |date=2018 |title=ARCA. Arxiu de Revistes Catalanes Antigues |url=https://arca.bnc.cat/arcabib_pro/|access-date=2021-07-18 |website=arca.bnc.cat |language=ca}}</ref>

On October 1, 1933, she began her journalistic career in the weekly magazine ''Clarisme'' where she published twenty-two contributions: five prose on traditional culture, thirteen interviews, two reviews, a short story, and three comments on political, musical and film themes.<ref name=":5" /> That same year, she joined the Barcelona Press Association, which evidenced her intention to formalize collaboration with journalistic work.<ref name=":5" />

In the spring of 1934 she published her second work, ''What cannot be escaped'', in the editions of the magazine Clarisme.<ref name=":5" /> In May of that same year, she won the ''Independent Casino Award of the Floral Games of Lleida'' with the story "''The little mermaid and the dolphin''", which is currently lost.<ref name=":5" />

After writing that second work, Joan Puig i Ferrater, director of Ediciones Proa, visited her and was interested in publishing her next work: A day in the life of a man, which was published in the autumn of that same year in Proa.<ref name=":5" /> Rodoreda began to enter the literary world thanks to the help of Puig i Ferrater himself, who opened the doors of ''El Club de los Novelistas'', made up of authors such as Armand Obiols, [[Francesc Trabal]] or [[Joan Oliver i Sallarès|Joan Oliver]], who were also former members of The Sabadell Group.<ref name=":9">Mercè Rodoreda and [[Joaquín Soler Serrano]] (1981). '[[A fondo]]' (Television Productions). [[Televisión Española]]. During 00:20:48 - 00:21:22.</ref> At that time, she began to read the novels of [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]].<ref name=":9" />

From 1935 to 1939, she published a total of sixteen stories for children in the newspaper ''La Publicidad'', in a section called ''A while with children''.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Les primeres novel·les de Mercè Rodoreda (1932-1936) |url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/descargaPdf/les-primeres-novelles-de-merce-rodoreda-19321936--0/ |access-date=2021-07-18 |website=www.cervantesvirtual.com}}</ref> ''Noteworthy is The Boy'' and ''The House'', dedicated to her son, and also ''The Sheet'', which she dedicated to Josep Carner.<ref name=":6" /> In addition, she combined it with the publication of stories in the leading Catalan press media such as ''La Revista'', ''[[La Veu de Catalunya]]'' and ''Mirador'', among others.<ref name=":4" />

In 1936 she published her fourth novel, ''Crim''. Later, Rodoreda rejected this novel, along with the previous three, considering them the product of inexperience.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="Catalunya">{{Cite journal |journal=Universitat Oberta de Catalunya |title=lletrA - La literatura catalana a internet |url=https://lletra.uoc.edu/ |language=ca}}</ref>

====Spanish Civil War====
From 1937 until that moment, Rodoreda held the position of Catalan language corrector in the Generalitat's Propaganda Commissariat. In this place she met writers of that time such as [[Aurora Bertrana]], Maria Teresa Vernet, and also established a friendship with Susina Amat, Julieta Franquesa, [[Anna Murià]] and Carmen Manrubia.<ref name=":3" />

She was awarded the 1937 Joan Crexells Prize for her work ''Aloma''.<ref name=":11">{{Cite web |date=2008-09-25 |title=Premi Joan Crexells: 80 anys de novel·la catalana |url=http://crexells.ateneubcn.org/web/index.html |access-date=2021-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080925225922/http://crexells.ateneubcn.org/web/index.html |archive-date=2008-09-25 }}</ref> That same year, she separated from her husband Joan Gurguí, after nine years of marriage and with one child.<ref name=":3" /> Her alleged lover, [[Andreu Nin Pérez|Andreu Nin]], was arrested on June 16 in front of his party's headquarters on [[La Rambla, Barcelona|La Rambla]] in [[Barcelona]], where days later he was tortured and killed by Soviet police officers on the orders of General [[Alexander Orlov (Soviet defector)|Alexander Orlov]], in the prison of [[Alcalá de Henares]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Viñas |first=Angel |date=2007-04-21 |title=Un agente estalinista, cerebro del asesinato de Nin |language=es |work=El País |url=https://elpais.com/diario/2007/04/22/domingo/1177213961_850215.html |access-date=2021-07-18 |issn=1134-6582}}</ref>

In 1938, the fifth novel by Mercè Rodoreda entitled ''Aloma'' was published by the [[Institució de les Lletres Catalanes|Institution of Catalan Letters]]. This was the first work that Rodoreda accepted as hers, although later she rewrote and published it again. The same year, on behalf of the [[PEN International|PEN Club]] of [[Catalonia]], she traveled together with the Catalan writer [[Francesc Trabal]], and read a welcome written by [[Carles Riba]] at the international congress of the PEN club in [[Prague]].<ref name=":3" />