Abstract
This paper presents the results of a research that is engaged in tracing the history of Editora Alfa-Omega (a publishing company) through bibliographical sources, document analysis and interviews. It aims to define the specificity and function of this publishing house inside the complex book industry in Brazil. Created in 1973, in São Paulo, by Fernando and Claudete Mangarielo, Alfa-Omega has been “publishing Brazilian critical thought”. During its first four years of activity (1973-1976), it produced 44 titles, 16 of which authored by academics of the University of São Paulo, then an important focus of opposition to the military regime. Nowadays, it holds over 200 titles in catalog. During the last 14 years, after going through a difficult period in the 1990s, the Alfa-Omega publishing has been investing heavily in the internet and digital Media as a tool for production and sales of books. It has maintained unaltered for 40 years its editorial guidelines. The paper finally discusses the difficulty of keeping left-wing middle-sized publishing houses and the importance of such enterprises in the maintenance of a pluralistic editorial situation.
Keywords:
Editora Alfa-Omega; Fernando and Claudete Mangarielo; Publishing; Books