Editora Alfa-Omega: produção literária em tempos de censura (1973-1984)

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the initial years of the Alfa-Omega Publisher, highlighting, in particular, part of its literary production and some biographical aspects of the editors. Inaugurated in São Paulo, in 1973, by the couple Fernando Mangarielo and Claudete Machado Mangarielo, the Publisher had published in just over a decade one hundred and forty-three titles, most of them focused on topics related to the Human Sciences. The editors, linked to the University of São Paulo’s intellectuality, got to bring important works to the general public which reflect on the political, economic and social situation in Brazil, in a period marked by the censorship of the civil-military regime. Considered as an opposition publisher, Alfa-Omega brings in its catalog classics of Marxism, as well as books that represents an era, such as A Ilha: um repórter brasileiro no país de Fidel Castro, by Fernando Morais, in 1976, which becomes his best seller; and a very interesting collection from a political point of view, entitled História Imediata, between 1978 and 1979, in magazine format, with delicate and censored themes, such as the Araguaia Guerrilla. With a robust and promising catalogue, Alfa-Omega achieved, right from the beginning of its activities, its place in the market of books, alongside important and renowned publishers, being recognized by authors and critics of that time as a publisher concerned with contribute to the disclosure of critical and scientific thinking.