The Essayist

Most of the essays included in the books listed above were originally published in scholarly or literary journals. The dates given refer to the earliest edition of that book. Some books, however, underwent several editions. The second edition of Las palabras y los hombres, for example, was published in 1991 and contains an additional three essays. It should also be noted that España y Europa and Cuestiones españolas are really short books or long essays rather than collections of essays.

This section does not include the many shorter pieces that Ferrater Mora wrote for newspapers (see also the Newspaper Journalist), although there may be some overlapping. In the bibliography of Ferrater Mora's writings in Transparencies, Leopoldo Montoya lists 232 papers—which here are called essays. Bear in mind, however, that the bibliography in that book covers the period only up to 1982. It is true, then, that Ferrater wrote literally hundreds of essays. Not only are there a great number of essays, but the subject matter is extremely varied so that it is difficult to make any generalizations about them. Like so much of Ferrater Mora's thought, these essays defy easy description and categorization.

Many of Ferrater Mora's essays were written in Spanish, although there are a number in Catalan and English, some in French, a few in German and other languages. Some appeared in two or more languages.