Thanks to an exclusive agreement with 23-year-old Brazilian publisher Companhia das Letras, Penguin Classics will begin publishing in Brazil. The initial list of titles will drop next year.
The new imprint, published under Companhia das Letras, will be called Penguin Companhia Classicos, and will also include an accompanying line called Penguin Companhia. Both imprints will publish Portuguese translations of existing Penguin Classics editions and other titles, as well as books by some of Companhia’s most renowned authors and masterworks of Portuguese history and fiction.
Penguin chairman and chief executive John Makinson called Brazil “one of the most dynamic and promising publishing markets in the world” and has high hopes for the venture. “We could not wish for more compatible partners in this adventure than Luiz Schwarcz [president and publisher of Companhia das Letras] and Companhia das Letras. The publishing pedigree and style of Companhia are completely consistent with our own, and together we hope to reinvent the publishing of classic literature in Brazil.”
The Brazilian deal follows Penguin’s moves to publish classics in Chinese and Korean.
