A library is a collection of possible readings. Every book we buy is a reading project. Before the printed page of a book, readers are alone with their imagination, the only place where everyone can experience whatever they wish.

Companhia das Letras was set up in 1986. In its first twelve months it launched 48 titles. In 2009 alone there were over 250. Throughout its 24 years of existence almost 3,000 titles from 1,300 authors have been published, including those under the house.s six other imprints: Companhia das Letrinhas, Cia. das Letras, Companhia de Bolso, Quadrinhos na Cia., editora Claro Enigma and Penguin Companhia.

The company's permanent staff is distributed among the following departments: editing, graphic production, publicity and services for teachers, sales and administration. In addition, it can call on the services of collaborators in the areas of translation, text preparation, proofreading, iconographic research, illustration and graphic design.

Literature and the human sciences have been Companhia das Letras' two major editorial lines from the outset. These areas can be subdivided into Brazilian fiction, foreign fiction, poetry, crime writing, literary criticism, history, political sciences, anthropology, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. Other lines have also gained importance: photography, gastronomy, popular science, biography, memoirs, travel writing, and special projects.

Established in 1992, the Companhia das Letrinhas imprint aims to publish books in tune with children's sensitivity, to foster their cognitive capacity, their urge toward self-expression, and their need to begin to organize their world. In other words, books that afford an increasingly perceptible experience of independence.

Cia. das Letras, launched in 1994, works with two basic lines: fiction and non-fiction for the pre-teen and teen segments, as well as works that interest a wider range of age groups, such as Sophie's World, The boy in the striped pyjamas and Series of Unfortunate Events.

In order to make books even more accessible and expand their importance in Brazilian daily life, the imprint Companhia de Bolso was created in 2005: it relaunches Companhia das Letras. greatest best-sellers in pocket-size editions.

In 2009, in response to an increasingly demanding market, three further imprints were added to the Companhia flagship: Quadrinhos na Cia., Claro Enigma and Penguin Companhia. Quadrinhos na Cia. is a line dedicated entirely to the graphic novel and comic book genre, publishing both classic and contemporary authors, Brazilian and foreign, young and old.

Claro Enigma is a publishing outfit created to fill a demand from teachers and educational professionals for quality paradidactic materials that help pedagogical content reach its core target: the student.

Starting in the second semester of 2010, the Penguin Companhia imprint will publish Portuguese translations of titles from the extensive Penguin Classics catalog, complete with the collection.s internationally recognized format, as well as a series of Portuguese-language classics and new projects specially conceived for the collection.

One single working purpose unites the publishers' catalog: to publish books that are an invitation to read, through the quality of their texts and their graphic production.