Las aventuras de Nono (Jean Grave, trans. Anselmo Lorenzo, 1902): Paradoxes of a Timeless Libertarian Children’s Book

Abstract

In 1901, at the request of the libertarian educationalist Francisco Ferrer Guardia, Jean Grave wrote Las aventuras de Nono for young people. The novel sketches out an alternative society between Argyrocracy and Autonomy. Its translation into Spanish by Anselmo Lorenzo was immediately published by the École moderne in 1902. Published in France by Stock in 1901, Jean Grave's text was not republished until 2017 by Éditions Noir et Rouge (Paris). On the other hand, the translation was republished in Spain in 1980 by the publisher José J. de Olañeta (Barcelona), by MCA (Valencia) in 2000, then by Libertarias (Madrid) in 1991 and, more recently still, in 2013. We will try to understand why the voices of Jean Grave and Anselmo Lorenzo have continued to be heard in Spain for over a hundred years, surviving oblivion against a backdrop of mass production of novels for young people.