Objective:

This article analyses the beginning, development and failure of the Poetas Hispano-Americanos collection, an ambitious publishing project designed by the Colombian bookseller Lazaro M. Perez in 1887. Despite having the best-stocked and connected establishment of its time, the slow and difficult development of his project, of which only a single volume was published, allows us to examine, first, the problems that South American publishers had to face to work on a continental scale, and, in addition, the non-strict relationship between a wide and transnational network and commercial success.

Methodology:

The documents from his family papers, which reveal his cross-border relationships and exchanges, as well as his correspondence with the Peruvian bookseller Ricardo Palma, allow us to reconstruct the initial progress of the project, but also its stagnation, and stand out as unavoidable sources to analyze the intellectual and publishing practices of this bookseller.

Originality:

Like other book agents' itineraries Lázaro María Pérez is unknown, so the reconstruction of this and the analysis of its publishing megaproject are key to getting closer to the dynamics of the book trade in Colombia and the horizons of its members by the end of the 19th century.

Conclusions:

From the perspective of the transnational history of the book, the article highlights Pérez's bookseller-publishing capacities, thanks to which he was able to become, at least temporarily, a key book agent of the Latin American cultural space. Also, it emphasizes the need to address connections as significant elements in the construction of the continental book market, but also as mediators not necessarily effective.