The Anagram

The Anagram

The etymology of anagram refers us to the French anagramme , which comes from the Latin anagramma . An anagram is called a modification in the order of the letters that make up a word, generating a different word.

Take the case of the word "cat" . If we transpose letters, changing them, we can form other terms, such as "drop" or "toga" . In this way, "cat" , "drop"and "toga" are anagrams: words that are written with the same letters, but located in a different way.

The expressions can also result in anagrams. "Crazy author" , for example, is an anagram of "Colo Tauro" . The anagrams can appear in different languages : "An Smith" is an anagram of "This Man" .

It is curious that the anagram concept itself allows to create anagrams such as "frog range"or "lean ana" . It should be noted that anagrams are often used in word games and riddles as a hobby , since they require the use of creativity and memory for their training. Good management of anagrams requires an extensive vocabulary.

As can be seen in all the previous examples, it is not an anagram requirement that the words have some kind of relationship in terms of their semantics or their grammar, although this does not mean that they can exist by mere coincidence. It is said that "Voltaire", pseudonym of the famous writer, philosopher and historian of French origin, emerged as an anagram of his surname, Arouet, in the expression " Arouet l e j eune" ( Arouet, the young), taking only the "L" and "j" of the two remaining words and considering "u" as a "v", and "j" as an "i".

Anagrama , on the other hand, is the name of an editorial created in 1969in the Spanish city of Barcelona . Its founder was Jorge Herralde , renowned editor and writer.

Thanks to the work of Herralde, many authors of different languages ​​have been able to bring their works to Spanish-speaking readers. His career in the publishing world has been awarded on more than one occasion by organizations from different countries. With regard to his literary legacy as an author, he has published nearly a dozen books in which he usually delves into his editorial work. His wife, Eulalia Lali Gubern, worked as a bookseller and translator.

The Anagrama Publishing House has published books by great authors from around the world , such as Vladimir Nabokov , Norman Mailer , Sergio Pitol , Ricardo Piglia , Enrique Vila-Matas , Thomas Bernhard , Álvaro Pombo and Javier Marías . The company, on the other hand, awards two distinctions each year to recognize the quality of unpublished works: the Herralde Novel Award and the Anagram Essay Award .

Throughout the history of this publishing house, which covers approximately half a century, its catalog of books has exceeded three thousand, and among them are many of the most important essay and narrative titles of today, although it goes without saying that Not all authors are fortunate enough to publish in this house, and that is why competition is necessary.

Anagrama has several collections, with different themes, and the most significant are the following:

* Hispanic narratives , where Spanish-speaking fiction writers are grouped , such as Roberto Bolaño, Vera Giaconi, Alvaro Pombo, Marta Sanz, Ricardo Piglia, Mariana Enriquez, Javier Tomeo, Sara Mesa, Sergio Pitol, Esther García Llovet and, in the beginnings of their careers, Antonio Soler and Javier Marías;

* Panorama of narratives , which focuses on the fiction of foreign authorssuch as Cahterine Millet, Vladimir Nabokov, Pauline Dreyfus, Thomas Bernhard, Yasmina Reza, Patrick Modiano, Jean Echenoz, Ian McEwan, Christie Bridget, Norman Mailer, Linda Rosenkrantz, Albert Cohen, Sara Waters, Martin Amis, Roberto Calasso and Alessandro Baricco;

* Arguments , with essays of various kinds, prepared by writers, philosophers and contemporary thinkers among which we can highlight Graciela Speranza, Anselm Jappe, Julia Cagé, Guy Debord, Patricia Soley-Beltran, Greil Marcus and Hans Magnus Enzensberger.