The pain of living on pen: aspects of the national book market in the nineteenth century

Abstract

The organization of the Portuguese book market in the nineteenth century produced  some changes in the relationship of authors with their publishers, the public and the works themselves: some attempts were done in order to create a popular circuit having for its grounds economic and attractive editions, the selling of works in fascicles and the foundation of reading rooms. The patron was replaced by the publisher, who took in charge the distribution of the author's work in the market and by that time some forms of association among the authors were launched in order to control the production processus and the copyright of their works. It is nevertheless important to remark that the Portuguese book market was then dependent on the French one (there was a literary agreement between both countries quite favourable for France; on the other side, some publishers in Portugal were of French origin). This situation was indeed most damageable for national authors.