Terenci Moix
The flamboyant Catalan novelist mocked the morality of the Franco era – and was one of the first public figures in Spain to live openly as a gay man.
Terenci Moix was born Ramon Moix i Meseguer in Barcelona and grew up in the working-class district of the Raval. He taught himself, devoured films and comics and dreamed of Hollywood and ancient Egypt, two passions that ran through his whole life. His sister, Ana María Moix, also became a well-known writer.
His first book, the short-story collection “La torre dels vicis capitals”, won the Mercè Rodoreda Prize in 1967. In his early novels, written in Catalan, he attacked the official morality of Francoism and portrayed desire between men at a time when homosexuality was still persecuted in Spain under the law on “social danger”. He was part of the generation of young writers who brought pop culture, irony and sexuality into Spanish literature.
Moix wrote in both Catalan and Spanish, published novels, essays on cinema and comics and travel books on Egypt, and contributed to newspapers such as “El País”. In 1992 he won the Ramon Llull Prize for “El sexe dels àngels”. He lived openly as a gay man and, with his wit and flamboyance, became a popular guest on Spanish television – one of the first public figures in Spain to make no secret of his homosexuality.
He died of emphysema in Barcelona in 2003, aged 61. A literary prize for gay and lesbian fiction is named after him.