She was “an incredible queen”, an unforgettable woman who invented the profession of literary agent in Spain. She is an unusual and unrepeatable character, not only as a “word dealer”, but also as the great mother of some of the best writers of her time, including the Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. Carmen Balcells He died in 2015 and left behind a huge legacy of friendship and genius. Her extraordinary life has now been narrated by one of her great friends, the academic carme riveraward of the agency he now runs Lluis Miquel PalomaresCarmen’s son. The book Carmen Balcells, trafficker of words (Debate) are five hundred and seven pages about a unique human history.
At what point did you decide the tone of the book? Because she could have made a book of confessions for a friend and she has chosen to reaffirm herself as a literary researcher.
Is that I wanted to verify many things that were said, and the only way to do it was to document. A documentary study needs a different tone than something more journalistic or more confessional, as you say.
And what did that force him to do?
Not to beatify her, because she didn’t want that. And I agreed.
Why should she have been beatified?
Because she was the great popess of literature. And popes, as you know, are usually beatified. She was the great popess for everything she achieved for us, for that famous ‘Balcells clause’ included, thanks to her, in the contracts with publishers. That is why she deserves beatification and sanctification by the authors. There are other aspects for which, according to the editors, she does not deserve beatification. But since I’m not an editor, but an author…
Carmen was a lioness willing to do anything for her authors and, as there were some publishers who were somewhat abusive, they hated her
For what reasons would the publishers have sent it to hell?
Some, not all. Well, because they considered that Carmen was a lioness willing to do anything for her authors and, as there were some who were somewhat abusive, they hated her. She put a stop to mismanagement.
Don’t you think that at some point it happened?
No. Well, let’s see, she was extremely exaggerated, but… if she didn’t go a little overboard, she wouldn’t have achieved everything she achieved for the authors.
Did your character come from the factory or was it made due to your profession?
I think the character came from the factory. If you look at his correspondence with Salinas, he recognizes that one day she put order in her bookstore. And that caught my attention, because whoever dares to tidy up a publisher’s bookstore also dares to tidy up his head, right? As she grew as an agent, that character was consolidated.
Did she create the literary agent trade?
She created it, yes. Because before her, there were no female agents in the Hispanic world. She referred to what she did as “this beastly job.” And maybe without her fierce character I wouldn’t have done so many things. But tell me if it is not so, you who knew her.
It is so.
Well, that’s it.
What qualities did your personality and work share?
Your absolute generosity. She sent you flowers, she comforted you, she played mom. If it was necessary for me to make you some macaroons, she would make them for you. Look: if she trusted an author and she couldn’t get it published, she paid for the edition herself. That’s the ‘summum’ of affection towards the writers.
In that sense, he left a kind of “poisoned inheritance” to his son. However, he has put a rather interesting spin on it: he quietly does what she did.
Of course. She didn’t trust Lluis Miquel very much and, she looks at it, she has done very well: she hasn’t sold the agency and we are still the same, both his team and his authors. It is also true that we miss Carmen very much. Me, every day.
She not only influenced the profession of literary agent, but also that of editor and writer. This sector would not be the same today without her passing through this world.
So is. There is a before and after Balcells. For writers and for publishers. For what she got. Definitely.
He recounts his relationship with his friends and acquaintances. Who were his real friends?
His friends were the Polos. The so-called ‘Alberticos’, a married couple from Zaragoza. She always said that if the time came when she needed money, they would help her because they were unconditional. And they truly were. Also Nélida Piñon. And Lluis Izquierdo and Ana Ramón. Or the Feducci, from the moment García Márquez introduced them to him. She had a great capacity for social seduction. With her doctor too. José Luis Sampedro, among her writers, was also a reference for her. Olga Lucas, Sampedro’s widow, too. Because she was able to enter the soul of others with her words.
Many times it comes to my memory as if it were alive.
It happens to me too. Because when he died, I never believed it. It seems so strange to me to pass by her house and that she is not there! And I haven’t erased her number from her cell phone.
Who were his publishing friends and his writer friends?
Writers… well look: Vargas Llosa and García Márquez were his intimates. Nélida Piñón, Sampedro, Mendoza, Vázquez Montalbán, Isabel Allende, Manuel de Lope… His represented authors were also his friends. As for the editors, José Manuel Lara. Lara was very friendly. And Lara’s children, too. I mean, she wasn’t an enemy of publishers. In any case, she was the enemy of bad publishers. Daniel Fernandez, another friend. And Ricardo Rodrigo, from RBA, whom he loved so much. He left me many, sure.
Those relationships had ups and downs. What was your main emotional failure for you?
When one of his clients left. For example, Luis Goytisolo. When he left the agency, Carmen took it as a sentimental failure, as if her lover had abandoned her. And so with others. Some left and then came back, and she experienced it as the return of her prodigal son.
How did she react to breakups as incredible as the one starring in ‘The Garden Next Door’, by José Donoso?
That didn’t matter much to him. Because she didn’t love the Donoso’s. I don’t know for what reason. And therefore, the ‘garden next door’ did not bother him too much. I’m sure of that, I discussed it with her. She didn’t affect him.
What were your truest tears?
When he couldn’t be with his son. Like so many women who work, one gets away from them and has a hard time.
There are things that are difficult to tell for someone who was such a friend of the portrayed. For example, the arbitrariness that she adorned so many times and her peculiar marital relationship.
The relationship with her husband… I describe it as fraternal. That is, of brothers who fight. Suddenly we were having dinner and she began to insult Lluis, she told him to shut up and such. Or she used to say that a husband is good enough to carry your suitcase up to the attic and nothing more. But when he died, she told me, “I never thought he would cry so much.” Well, it was because there was love.
She really wanted to be God. To organize everything
She said that if she hadn’t been a literary agent, she would have wanted to be a justice minister.
Exactly. Minister of justice. And also director of Iberia. But I think that, in reality, she would have wanted to be God. To organize everything.
Sitting at your table, ordering everything, at what point did you see her more human?
When she took care of the people who cared for her. One day she went, in a wheelchair, to advocate for a person who worked with her and they wanted to swindle her. That sounded great to me. And with some of her employees, she practically acted as a mother.
Collect many testimonials. The one that moved me the most is that of Nuria Rodríguez, secretary of the agency.
Yes. Because Nuria was the daughter he didn’t have.
How did she handle the crisis between Mario and Gabo?
He never made the slightest comment. The journalists asked her questions and she always kept quiet. She must have experienced it with sadness, because she loved them both very much. I think she had both versions and she knew everything and she… was very discreet.
And the break between Cercas and Toni López when he left Tusquets, to which he has recently returned?
I was talking about that episode. And, furthermore, I asked Cercas and he sent me the farewell letter that he wrote to the publisher. She experienced it badly, with tension, because she was fond of Toni López, but she felt that she had to defend her author.
Did Balcells leave with a secret that you would have wanted to reveal?
With many. I know things about his sentimental life that I have not told. But there is something that worries me and that I have not been able to find out: I never asked her why she was called Carmen, why her mother gave her that name.
Rosa Montero told her that she was an incredible queen. What other adjective do you think is better for Carmen Balcells?
I would add many of the compliments that García Márquez gave her: ‘superwoman’, he called her. Because she was capable of solving everything. The one with genius, it fits her. And that of papisa, which I like so much.