Lectorum Founder Celebrates Golden Anniversary

Ivette Manners -- Críticas, 6/1/2003

"Publishing has been very rewarding for me," says Bill Mlawer the founder of Lectorum, the world’s largest Spanish-language book distributor and the oldest U.S. bookstore catering to Latino titles. Cuban-born Mlawer, currently celebrating his 50 years in publishing, began his career in 1953 when his brother was drafted into the army and asked him to take over his one-man publishing company while he was away. When his brother returned from his military service, they acquired Regents Publishing and started to grow their small company. Simon & Schuster bought the ESL publishing company Mlawer and his brother had created within Regents Publishing, and Mlawer became publisher of the international division. That appointment catapulted him into top positions at major book publishing houses, including Prentice Hall, within their Spanish-language and international divisions.

Lectorum started in 1971, when Mlawer, at the time head of Monarch, the international division of Simon & Schuster, learned that a close friend of his wanted to retire and sell his small bookstore. With the help of Simon & Schuster, Mlawer bought the small business with the intention of keeping it a "side project." A few years later, he met his wife, Teresa, who is currently the president of Lectorum and the force behind its success in Spanish-language children’s books. "I made the two best decisions in my life," says Mlawer. "I asked Teresa to work with me at Lectorum and I asked her to marry me. She accepted both proposals!" In 1986, Mlawer left his position at Simon & Schuster to concentrate wholly on Lectorum. After a few acquisitions, Scholastic bought Lectorum in 1996. "We are very happy with Scholastic," Mlawer says of the powerhouse company in which Lectorum remains a self-contained subsidiary. "They share our same philosophy in dedication to children." Together Mlawer and his wife have expanded the Spanish-language bookstore into the highly regarded Spanish-language publisher and distributor Lectorum is today.

To date, Lectorum has published 105 original and Spanish-translation titles, and distributes more than 15,000 titles from over 500 major publishers worldwide. Seventy percent of the books it distributes fall into the children’s and young adult categories, and 30% are adult titles. Reflecting on his years in publishing, Mlawer is most proud of Lectorum’s influence on bilingual education in the schools. "It’s important that we keep our language alive," he says.

Mlawer will continue as a consultant for Lectorum, which now has 50 employees. Looking into the future, he hopes to establish Lectorum’s own imprint that will publish original titles by American-based Latinos.