Brazilian publisher Schwarcz honoured with LBF Lifetime Achievement Award

Luiz Schwarcz, publisher of Brazilian company Companhia das Letras, will receive the London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award this year.

Schwarcz founded Companhia das Letras with his wife, historian and anthropologist Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, in 1986.

LBF organisers said Schwarcz had made a “profound and unique contribution” to book publishing in Brazil in its 30-year history, releasing no less than 38 Nobel laureates, including Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing, José Saramago, and J M Coetzee.

Companhia das Letras has the biggest market share of any publisher in Brazil according to Nielsen BookScan, after publishing 5,000 titles across fiction and non-fiction.

Schwarcz, said he felt “deeply honoured and also humbled” to receive the award and was “particularly happy” to do so alongside his late friend agent Deborah Rogers, who died in 2014 and who Schwarcz said was one of his “greatest friends in publishing and whom I admire and deeply miss”.

“I am proud that a Brazilian publishing house has received such a great recognition from The London Book Fair,” he added.

David Roche, non-executive chair of The London Book Fair Advisory Group said: “Luiz is one of the true global pioneer publishers and is synonymous with the publishing industry in Brazil. He is respected around the world and we the LBF Advisory Board are delighted to recognise his immense contribution over many, many years.”

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognises an individual who has made a truly significant mark in the sphere of global publishing and is open to publishers, agents, editors, scouts and anyone else involved in international publishing from any country in the world. Last year the award was presented to Baroness Gail Rebuck.