ABSTRACT
The Catalan PEN has been a tool of internationalization of Catalan culture and relation with other international cultures. Since its foundation in 1922 and until the Civil War (1936–1939), the Catalan PEN hosted numerous visits by the most illustrious international writers. All of them passed through Barcelona invited by PEN and were able to know first-hand Catalan cultural activity. Names such as Paul Valéry, G. K. Chesterton, Luigi Pirandello, and Charles Vildrac, all of them linked to the respective PEN centres, were invited to lecture and participate in PEN activities during the 20s and 30s. The highlight of this reception of international writers in Catalonia, and contact with Catalan literature, arrived in May 1935, with the celebration of the International Congress of PEN Club in Barcelona, under the chairmanship of H. G. Wells and Pompeu Fabra.
