With teaching prohibited, Augusto da Costa Dias was left with research and writing. But even these activities were often restricted due to the political repression to which the cultural milieu was subjected. Costa Dias then decided to focus on professional activities that encompassed all aspects of cultural promotion: he became, as Alexandre Cabral described him in a tribute article in Seara Nova, a prominent “cultural promoter” in the mid-20th century. This role can be seen in various records. The first is linked to the publishing world. In the 1950s, he set up a publishing and distribution company called “Guilda do Livro e do Disco” with António José Saraiva, under the cover of which works banned in Portugal were circulated. After Jorge de Sena left for Brazil, Costa Dias took up the position of literary director at Portugália Editora in 1959, which he held until 1968. There he created the “Coleção Portugália” [ Portugália Collection ] , which published historians who had difficulty getting their works published, including Borges Coelho, José Tengarrinha, Oliveira Marques, Joel Serrão and Victor de Sá, among others. He also launched other literary collections for poets and novelists such as Mário Dionísio, José Gomes Ferreira, Vergílio Ferreira, Alves Redol and José Régio. Also at this publishing house, traditionally dedicated to the publication of anthologies or reissues, some works stand out where Costa Dias presented reissues, mainly focused on the 19 th century. Titles by Trindade Coelho, such as O Senhor Sete [Mister Seven] , by Basílio Teles, Do Ultimatum ao 31 de Janeiro and Memórias políticas [From Ultimatum to 31 January and Political Memories] , or by Almeida Garrett, such as O Roubo das Sabinas [The Rape of the Sabine Women] and Viagens na Minha Terra [Travels in my Homeland] , within the scope of the literary works of the romantic writer. For this last book, Costa Dias was prohibited from consulting the original edition of the work in the General Library of the University of Coimbra (it was Maria Helena da Costa Dias, his wife, who consulted the work, using her maiden name). However, he was unable to publish a multi-volume edition of Almeida Garrett’s Obra Política [ Political Work ] , after announcing the table of contents of the collection in a pamphlet, due to the prior dissuasion of the censors. He did, however, publish a collection of Discursos sobre a Liberdade de Imprensa no Primeiro Parlamento [ Speeches on Freedom of the Press in the First Parliament ] , in which we can glimpse a criticism of Salazar’s censorship, thus acquiring value as a political weapon. Many of these historiographical editions, whether written by him or by other authors, were introduced by Augusto da Costa Dias and included valuable onomastic and thematic indexes, which was unusual in the Portuguese publishing world.

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