Publication
Title
Angèle Manteau and the Indonesian connection: a remarkable story of the Flemish book trade after the Second World War
Author
Abstract
The famous twentieth-century publishing house A. Manteau would not have achieved its literary success if the manager of the firm, Angèle Manteau, had not been prepared to reach commercial compromises once in a while. In Flanders, publishing companies could not make ends meet with the sales of literary work alone: other activities to finance their less profitable and sometimes even loss-making novels and collections of poems were necessary. Even though Angèle Manteau realised this and constantly tried to improve the profitability of her company, it never flourished and occasionally experienced great difficulty. Towards the end of the fifties the publishing house was heading straight towards bankruptcy. At precisely the same time the Dutch publisher Wilhelmus van Hoeve (1899-1968) suffered some setbacks of his own. His main activity was producing scholarly books about Indonesia, but his business took a turn for the worse when diplomatic contact between the Netherlands and Indonesia was broken off. Among other things this meant that the Indonesian authorities would no longer allow trade with Dutch companies. Van Hoeve therefore started looking for a Belgian partner to organize the export of his books for him. Around 1958 he found the manager of the ailing Manteau company prepared to help him. For the Belgian company the cooperation with van Hoeve soon proved very lucrative. Not only did it put Manteau back on its feet, it even created new opportunities.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Quaerendo : a quarterly journal from the Low Countries devoted to manuscripts and printed books. - Amsterdam, 1971, currens
Publication
Amsterdam : 2008
ISSN
0014-9527 [print]
1570-0690 [online]
Volume/pages
38 :4 (2008) , p. 346-358
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
VABB-SHW
Record
Identifier
Creation 11.12.2008
Last edited 07.10.2022
To cite this reference