Academia Brasileira de Letras

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Academia Brasileira de Letras (About this sound pronunciation (help·info) English: Brazilian Academy of Letters) is a Brazilian literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century by a group of 40 writers and poets inspired by the Académie Française. The first president, Machado de Assis, declared its foundation on December 15, 1896, with the statutes being passed on January 28, 1897. On July 20 of the same year the Academy was established. The Brazilian Academy of Letters is, according to its statutes, the authority on the "national language" of Brazil (the Portuguese language). It is comprised to this day of 40 members, known as "immortals", chosen from among the citizens of Brazil who have published recognized works or books of literary value. The position of "immortal" is awarded for the recipient's lifetime. New members are admitted by a vote of the Academy members when one of the "chairs" become vacant. The chairs are numbered and bear the names of their first incumbents. The academicians use formal gala gilded uniforms with a sword (which is called "fardão") when participating in official meetings of the Academy. During periods of dictatorship and military régime, the Academy's neutrality in choosing proper members dedicated to the literary profession was compromised when it elected politicians with few or no contributions to literature, such as ex-president Getúlio Vargas. One exception to this is former Brazilian president and senator José Sarney, who is a well-published regional novelist in his own right. The Academy, which was a purely male affair until the groundbreaking election of novelist Rachel de Queiroz in 1977 for chair No. 5, now has four women members (10% of its total membership), one of which, Nélida Piñon, served as president in 1996-7.

The Academy, thanks to sound management and good revenues in excess of $4 million a year, is well off financially. It owns a skyscraper with 28 floors (Palácio Austregésilo de Athaide), in a valued area in the center of Rio, which the Academy rents for office space, generating 70% of its current revenue. The rest comes from rental of other buildings, which were legated by book editor Francisco Alves, in 1917, and from financial investments. This comfortable situation allows for paying a "jeton" to each academician. The ABL is located just by its side, in a beautiful neoclassical building, which is named "Petit Trianon". It was donated by the government of France in 1923 and is so named because it is a copy of the Petit Trianon palace in Versailles, near Paris, France.

It has recently inaugurated one of the largest public libraries in Rio, with 90,000 volumes and a huge multimedia center.

The Academy annually awards several literary prizes: the Prêmio Machado de Assis (the most important literature prize in the country, awarded for lifework), and the ABL prizes for poetry, for fiction and drama, for essays, critic and history of the literature, and for children's literature. In 2005 the Afonso Arino de Mello Franco Prize was also established.

Contents

[edit] Original patrons

  1. Adelino Fontoura
  2. Álvares de Azevedo
  3. Artur de Oliveira
  4. Basílio da Gama
  5. Bernardo Guimarães
  6. Casimiro de Abreu
  7. Castro Alves
  8. Cláudio Manuel da Costa
  9. Gonçalves de Magalhães
  10. Evaristo da Veiga
  11. Fagundes Varela
  12. Joaquim José França Júnior
  13. Francisco Otaviano
  14. Franklin Távora
  15. Gonçalves Dias
  16. Gregório de Mattos
  17. Hipólito da Costa
  18. João Francisco Lisboa
  19. Joaquim Caetano da Silva
  20. Joaquim Manuel de Macedo
  21. Joaquim Serra
  22. José Bonifácio the Young
  23. José de Alencar
  24. Julio Cézar Ribeiro Vaughan
  25. Junqueira Freire
  26. Laurindo Rabelo
  27. Maciel Monteiro
  28. Manuel Antônio de Almeida
  29. Martins Pena
  30. Pardal Mallet
  31. Pedro Luís Pereira de Sousa
  32. Manuel de Araújo Porto-alegre
  33. Raul Pompeia
  34. Sousa Caldas
  35. Tavares Bastos
  36. Teófilo Dias
  37. Tomás Antônio Gonzaga
  38. Tobias Barreto de Menezes
  39. Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen
  40. José Maria da Silva Paranhos

[edit] Presidents of ABL

[edit] Current members

The members of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (June 2008):

  1. Ana Maria Machado
  2. Tarcísio Padilha
  3. Carlos Heitor Cony
  4. Carlos Nejar
  5. José Murilo de Carvalho
  6. Cícero Sandroni
  7. Nelson Pereira dos Santos
  8. Antônio Olinto
  9. Alberto da Costa e Silva
  10. Lêdo Ivo
  11. Hélio Jaguaribe
  12. Alfredo Bosi
  13. Sergio Paulo Rouanet
  14. Celso Lafer
  15. (Father) Fernando Bastos de Ávila
  16. Lygia Fagundes Telles
  17. Affonso Arinos de M. Franco
  18. Arnaldo Niskier
  19. Antonio Carlos Secchin
  20. Murilo Melo Filho
  21. Paulo Coelho
  22. Ivo Pitanguy
  23. Unoccupied chair (with the death of Zélia Gattai)
  24. Sábato Magaldi
  25. Alberto Venancio Filho
  26. Marcos Vinicios Rodrigues Vilaça
  27. Eduardo Portella
  28. Domício Proença Filho
  29. José Mindlin
  30. Nélida Piñon
  31. Moacyr Scliar
  32. Ariano Suassuna
  33. Evanildo Bechara
  34. João Ubaldo Ribeiro
  35. Candido Antonio Mendes de Almeida
  36. João de Scantimburgo
  37. Ivan Junqueira
  38. José Sarney
  39. Marco Maciel
  40. Evaristo de Moraes Filho

[edit] Gallery of the Immortals

[edit] External links

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