Editorial data

The monthly periodical Ler, Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ciências appeared in April 1952 and was last published in October 1953. Owned by Publicações Europa-América, its director was Francisco Lyon de Castro, while his brother, Adelino Lyon de Castro, served as editor. After the latter’s death the director accumulated interim editor duties for the final issue.

It included two supplements: the first, in the June 1952 issue, was dedicated to the Lisbon and Porto Book Fairs, and the second, in July 1953, commemorated the centennial of Van Gogh's birth.

The newspaper's administration was headquartered at the offices of the Publicações Europa-América at Rua da Barroca, 4, in Bairro Alto, while the publisher’s store in neighbouring Rua das Flores, 45, became a place of everyday socialization for many of the men of letters who frequented the cafés and bookstores of Chiado.

Belagrafia, at Travessa do Noronha, 28, was responsible for typesetting and printing the first issue, and the task was then permanently passed to Editora Gráfica Portuguesa, Lda., at Rua Nova do Loureiro, 32.

Ler followed up on the bulletin already published by Publicações Europa-América with the same title, likely due to reasons related to the administrative and censorial difficulties that confronted the periodic press. The justification for suspending the publication was, in fact, a formal pretext, the editor’s death.

The initiative came from Francisco Lyon de Castro, who arranged with Fernando Piteira Santos to hold a meeting with nearby opposition intellectuals aimed at explaining the objectives of the periodical and choosing the core of authors who would guarantee its texts.

The interest shown by the literate public in the only national literary newspaper of its time is reflected in the fact that the first issue had two print runs, since the first one quickly sold out, with a total of 15,000 copies; the possibility put forth in an editorial after the first five months to shorten its periodicity to biweekly, or even weekly; and the confession, in the final issue’s editorial, that 6,300 copies were being printed.

It should also be noted that the relationship between the publishing house and many of the newspaper's collaborators extended beyond its extinction, as was the case with Mário Dionísio, who saw immediate publication of A Paleta e o Mundo by the Publicações Europa-América, but also Fernando Lopes Graça, João José Cochofel, Fernando Namora, Alves Redol, António José Saraiva; some of these authors saw systematic editions of their works.

Luís Andrade