author

Carlos Prince

1836–1919

A restless 19th-century printer, bookseller, and bibliographer who helped shape Peru’s literary world, he spent decades publishing major writers and documenting the history of print. His life stretched from Paris to Lima, with plenty of adventure in between.

1 Audiobook

I. Origen de los indios de América. II. Origen y civilizaciones de los indígenas del Perú.

I. Origen de los indios de América. II. Origen y civilizaciones de los indígenas del Perú.

by Carlos Prince

About the author

Born in Paris on September 9, 1836, Carlos Prince Letcher trained as a typographer in France before a turbulent period of travel through North and Central America and later Chile. He settled in Lima in the early months of 1862 and remained in Peru for the rest of his life, building a career in the world of printing, publishing, and bookselling.

In Lima he worked with several important presses, taught typography at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios, and in 1881 founded his own bookshop and printing house, El Universo. Through that work he became an important figure in Peruvian literary culture, publishing writers such as Ricardo Palma, Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera, Juan de Arona, Manuel Moncloa y Covarrubias, and Manuel Ascencio Segura.

He also wrote and edited books of his own, including works on Peruvian history, religion, and bibliography, as well as studies of early printing and indigenous-language teaching texts. Remembered as one of the best-known printers, editors, and bibliographers of 19th-century Peru, he died in Lima on February 28, 1919.