Biblioteca pentru toți (BPT, ''Library For All'') is a Romanian collection that was initiated by the writer and folklorist Dumitru Stăncescu and published from March 1, 1895, by the publisher Carol Müller, who was inspired by the German pocket collection ''Reclams Universal-Bibliothek'' from

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

History

The first issue from 1895 included "Selected stories" by

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

, translated in Romanian by Dumitru Stăncescu. 178 numbers were published. In 1900 the collection was sold to the Leon Alcalay Bookstore, Bucharest, which continued the numbering from 179. From 1920, the collection came under the auspices of the "Viata Românească" publishing house, which continues to publish issues, and after 3 years reaches no. 1105. In 1923 the collection was taken over by Iancu Şaraga and S. Schwartz. The new owners reprinted 1105 issues in revised editions. The new name of the publishing house is "UNIVERSALA" ALCALAY & Co. Bookstore, and the last collection number published by this publishing house, in 1940, is 1536. In 1941, no volume was published. In 1942–1949, the collection was published by Socec Publishing House (Editura Socec). From 1950 to 1959 it was published by Editura Cartea Rusă and Editura pentru Literatură și Artă, without collection numbers. Since 1960, again numbered from 1, the collection has been edited by Editura de Stat pentru Literatură și Artă (ESPLA); Editura pentru Literatură (EPL) and, from 1970 to 2001, by Editura Minerva. In 1960,

Mihai Șora Mihai Șora (; 7 November 1916 – 25 February 2023) was a Romanian philosopher and essayist. Career After travelling back to Romania in 1948, Șora became a member of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) and was employed by the Ministry of For ...

was the founder of the new BPT series as

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

at the ESPLA. 1,700 numbered volumes that appeared in the collection between 1960 and 1970 (ESPLA and EPL) and 1970-2001 (Editura Minerva). In March 2009,

Marius Tucă Marius Tucă (born 29 July 1966) is a Romanian journalist and TV host. He was born in Caracal, Olt County. He distinguished himself in the 1990s as a political analyst and a TV host. He also contributed to the transformation of the ''Jurnalul Na ...

from ''

Jurnalul Național ''Jurnalul Național'' is a Romanian newspaper, part of the INTACT Media Group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular television station Antena 1. The newspaper was launched in 1993. Its headquarters is in Bucharest Buchares ...

'' launched a collection of books under the brand name "Biblioteca pentru toți", comprising 100 titles, most written by Romanian authors.Biblioteca pentru toți: O colecție de literatură românească
, 18 martie 2009, ''Jurnalul Național'', accesat la 14 iulie 2012

1960 – 1967

Between January 1960 and August 1967, 400 issues were published with a total circulation of 24.625 million copies (the same number of copies were published in the period 1895–1949 in the same collection, but unnumbered). The first 400 numbers have approx. 140,000 book pages with works from 31 literatures - Romanian, African, South African, American, Arabic, Belgian, Bulgarian, Czech, Chinese, Danish, Swiss, English, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Modern and Ancient Greek, Guatemalan, Yiddish, Indian, Icelandic, Italian, Latin, Hungarian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Russian, Serbian and Spanish.Cover IV of the volume ''Flori alese din poezia populară - Poezia obiceiurilor tradiționale'', no. 49 bis (since 1967, August), Editura pentru Literatură

References

Editorial collections 1895 establishments in Romania Book publishing in Romania