The story
Founded by Luiz Schwarcz in 1986.1
In an interview with The Guardian, Luis Schwarcz said he knew Brazil lacked quality publishing houses after working eight years in the publishing industry at Editora Brasiliense. In 1986, recognizing the opportunity, he and his wife, Lilia Moritz, established a publishing house that combined literary, commercial, and progressive marketing techniques.
One of the publisher's first four titles, Edmund Wilson's To the Finland Station, had never been published in Brazil, despite having been published in English 40 years before. Their Portuguese version sold more copies in Brazil than the English edition sold in the United States. Consequently, Companhia das Letras gained in reputation and signed a well-known Brazilian contemporary writer, Rubem Fonseca. In its first year, Companhia das Letras published 48 different titles. In 1989, businessman, writer and economist Fernando Moreira Salles became a partner of Companhia das Letras.
In 2010, the Penguin Companhia label began to publish Portuguese translations from the Penguin Classics catalogue, with the internationally recognized Penguin format, as well as a series of classics in Portuguese and new projects designed especially for the collection. In December 2011, Penguin bought 45% of the company. Following the sale to Penguin, Companhia das Letras expanded its publishing genres and created more brands. Luis Schwarcz said the transaction "gave us great learning opportunities and the ability to share their experience with fellow publishers worldwide".
In 2015, the company bought Editora Objetiva, which was previously owned by Grupo Santillana / PRISA.
In 2015, Nielsen BookScan determined "Companhia das Letras is the second largest book publisher with an 8.08% market share in Brazil." In 2017, BookScan listed Companhia das Letras as "the largest book publisher with over 5,000 titles and 34 Nobel Prize winners".
In 2017, Luiz Schwarcz won the London Book Fair's Lifetime Achievement Award. David Roche, a London Book Fair Advisory Group member, said, "Luiz is one of the world's leading publishers, and his name could be said to represent the Brazilian publishing industry".
In 2018, Penguin Random House increased its stake in the publisher to 70%, leaving the Schwarcz family with a 30% minority stake.
On October 2, 2019, the company bought publishing house Zahar of Rio de Janeiro.
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On March 18, 2022, Companhia das Letras announced the purchase of 70% of Editora JBC, aiming to support the distribution, commercialization and promotion of JBC manga. Management remained in the hands of the Shoji sisters due to their experience with the manga and licensing area, and the purchase was announced in the week that Editora JBC celebrated its 27th anniversary.
From Wikipedia’s article on Companhia das Letras, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4