Academia Brasileira de Letras


Academia Brasileira de Letras 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 by-laws being passed on January 28, 1897. On July 20 of the same year, the academy started its operation.
According to its statutes, the Brazilian Academy of Letters is charged with the care of the "national language" of Brazil and with the promotion of Brazilian literary arts. The academy is considered the foremost institution devoted to the Portuguese language in Brazil. Its prestige and technical qualification gives it paramount authority in Brazilian Portuguese, even though it's not a public institution and no law grants it oversight over the language. The academy's main publication in this field is the Orthographic Vocabulary of the Portuguese Language which has five editions. The Vocabulary is prepared by the academy's Commission on Lexicology and Lexicography. If a word is not included in the Vocabulary, it is considered not to exist as a correct word in Brazilian Portuguese.
Since its beginning and to this day, the academy is composed of 40 members, known as the "immortals". These members are chosen from among citizens of Brazil who have published works or books with recognized literary value. The position of "immortal" is awarded for the lifetime. New members are admitted by a vote of the academy members when one of the "chairs" become vacant. The chairs are numbered and each has a Patron: the Patrons are 40 great Brazilian writers that were already dead when the academy was founded; the names of the Patrons were chosen by the Founders as to honour them post mortem by assigning patronage over a chair. Thus, each chair is associated with its current holder, her or his predecessor, the original Founder who occupied it in the first place, and also with a Patron.
The academicians use formal gala gilded uniforms with a sword when participating in official meetings at the academy.

History

Foundation

The initiative to establish the Academy was taken by and was realised in preparatory meetings that began on December 15, 1896, under the presidency of Machado de Assis. The statuses of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and the membership of the 40 founding fathers were approved at these meetings, on January 28, 1897. On July 20 of the same year, the inaugural session was held at the Pedagogium's facility in the centre of Rio de Janeiro.
Without appointed headquarters or financial resources, the solemn meetings of the academy were held at the hall of the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, at the premises of the former National Gymnasium and at the Noble Hall of the Ministry of the Interior. The joint sessions were held at the law firm of Rodrigo Octávio, the Academy's first secretary's, at Quitanda Street, 47.
In 1904, the academy obtained the left wing of the Brazilian Silogeo, a governmental building that housed other cultural institutions. It remained there until moving to its own headquarters in 1923.

Petit Trianon

In 1923, thanks to the initiative of its president at the time, Afrânio Peixoto and of the then-French ambassador, Raymond Conty, the French government donated the French Pavilion building to the Academy. The building had been built for the Independence of Brazil's Centenary International Exposition by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, between 1762 and 1768 and was a replica of the Petit Trianon of Versailles.
These facilities have been inscribed as Brazilian Cultural heritage since November 9, 1987 by the State Institute of Cultural Heritage, of the Municipal Secretary of Culture of Rio de Janeiro. To the present day, its halls continue to host regular meetings, solemn sessions, commemorative meetings and inauguration sessions of the new academics, as well as the traditional Thursdays' tea. They are also open to the public for guided tours or for special cultural programs, such as chamber music concerts, book launches, conference cycles and theatre plays.
In the buildings' first floor hall stands the decorated marble floor, a French crystal chandelier, a large white porcelain vase from Sèvres and four English bas-reliefs. Inside the building, the following premises stand out:
On the second floor, one can find the Sessions Room, the Library the Tea Room. The Tea Room is the academics' meeting point before the Plenary Session, on Thursdays. The Library is used by scholars and researchers and holds a collection of Manuel Bandeira.

Dictatorship

During periods like the Vargas' totalitarian dictatorship or the Brazilian military government, the academy's neutrality in choosing proper members dedicated to the literary profession was compromised with the election of politicians with few or no contributions to literature, such as ex-president and dictator Getúlio Vargas in 1943. The Academy is also accused of not having defended culture expression and freedom of speech during both Vargas' Era and during the Military dictatorship. Both of these ruling periods imposed heavy censorship on Brazilian culture, including Brazilian literature.

Characteristic

According to its statuses, the Academy aims to promote the "culture of the national language". It comprises 40 effective and perpetual members, known as "immortals". These members are Brazilian citizens with published works of relevant literary value. Besides these members, the Academy also comprises 20 correspondent members.
All members go through a solemn session, in which dress the Academy's official garment for the first time. During the ceremony, the new member makes a speech remembering her or his predecessor and all previous members that occupied the chair.
The Academy, which was a traditionally male institution, elected its first female member on November 4, 1977 – the novelist Rachel de Queiroz. This groundbreaking election of the novelist opened the path for other female members. The academy now accounts for four women members, one of which, Nélida Piñon, served as president in 1996–97.

Nowadays

Thanks to revenues over $4 million a year, the academy is financially stable. It owns a skyscraper with 28 floors in the centre 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 inherited from book editor, in 1917, and from other financial investments. This comfortable situation allows the payment of a "jeton" to each academician.
The academy annually awards several literary prizes:
The academy also publishes a literary periodical, the Brazilian Review, with quarterly editions.

Orthographic Vocabulary

The academy's main publication in this field is the Orthographic Vocabulary of the Portuguese Language of which there are five editions. The Vocabulary is prepared by the academy's Commission on Lexicology and Lexicography. If a word is not included in the Vocabulary, it is considered not to exist as a correct word in Brazilian Portuguese.
The Orthographic Vocabulary, however, is not a dictionary, as it contains words and their grammatical categories, but not the definition or meaning of the words listed. Thus, unlike the French Academy, the Royal Spanish Academy and other foreign institutions dedicated to the care of a national language, the Brazilian Academy of Letters hasn't published an official dictionary. It has, however, published a School Dictionary of the Portuguese Language, with students as its target customers, in 2009.
The academy does plan to publish a full and official Dictionary. For the time being, however, other dictionaries such as the Aurélio and the Houaiss remain more prestigious than the School Dictionary, in spite of the fact that the latter is sometimes marketed by booksellers as the "ABL's Dictionary", due to its being authored by the academy. Both the Houaiss and the Aurélio Dictionaries, however, were first compiled by members of the academy Antônio Houaiss and Aurélio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira, respectively. The preparation of an official dictionary of the Portuguese language is a stated goal of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Members

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. França Júnior
  13. Francisco Otaviano
  14. Franklin Távora
  15. Gonçalves Dias
  16. Gregório de Matos
  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 Younger
  23. José de Alencar
  24. Júlio Ribeiro
  25. Junqueira Freire
  26. Laurindo Rabelo
  27. Antônio Peregrino 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 António Gonzaga
  38. Tobias Barreto
  39. Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen
  40. José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Sr.

    Correspondents

  41. Alexandre de Gusmão
  42. António José da Silva
  43. Manuel Botelho de Oliveira
  44. Eusébio de Matos
  45. Francisco de Sousa
  46. Matias Aires
  47. Nuno Marques Pereira
  48. Sebastião da Rocha Pita
  49. Santa Rita Durão
  50. Vicente do Salvador
  51. Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira
  52. Antônio de Morais Silva
  53. Domingos Borges de Barros
  54. Francisco do Monte Alverne
  55. Joaquim Gonçalves Ledo
  56. José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva
  57. Odorico Mendes
  58. Manuel Inácio da Silva Alvarenga
  59. Sotero dos Reis
  60. José da Silva Lisboa

    Presidents

  61. Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis 1897–1908
  62. Ruy Barbosa 1908–1919
  63. Domício da Gama 1919
  64. Carlos de Laet 1919–1922
  65. Afrânio Peixoto 1922–1923
  66. Medeiros e Albuquerque 1923
  67. Afrânio Peixoto 1923–1924
  68. Afonso Celso 1925
  69. Coelho Neto 1926
  70. Rodrigo Otávio 1927
  71. Augusto de Lima 1928
  72. Fernando Magalhães 1929
  73. Aloisio de Castro 1930
  74. Fernando Magalhães 1931–1932
  75. Gustavo Barroso 1932–1933
  76. Ramiz Galvão 1933–1934
  77. Afonso Celso 1935
  78. Laudelino Freire 1936
  79. Ataulfo de Paiva 1937
  80. Cláudio de Souza 1938
  81. Antônio Austregésilo 1939
  82. Celso Vieira 1940
  83. Levi Carneiro 1941
  84. Macedo Sorares 1942–1943
  85. Múcio Leão 1944
  86. Pedro Calmon 1945
  87. Cláudio de Sousa 1946
  88. João Neves da Fontoura 1947
  89. Adelmar Tavares 1948
  90. Miguel Osório de Almeida 1949
  91. Gustavo Barroso 1950-1950
  92. Aloisio de Castro 1951
  93. Aníbal Freire da Fonseca 1952
  94. Barbosa Lima Sobrinho 1953–1954
  95. Rodrigo Otávio Filho 1955
  96. Peregrino Júnior 1956–1957
  97. Elmano Cardim 1958
  98. Austregésilo de Athayde 1959–1993
  99. Abgar Renault 1993
  100. Josué Montello 1993–1995
  101. Antônio Houaiss 1995–1996
  102. Nélida Piñon 1996–1997
  103. Arnaldo Niskier 1997–1999
  104. Tarcísio Padilha 2000–2002
  105. Alberto da Costa e Silva 2002–2004
  106. Ivan Junqueira 2004–2005
  107. Marcos Vinícios Rodrigues Vilaça 2006–2007
  108. Cícero Sandroni 2008

    Current members

The members of the Brazilian Academy of Letters :
  1. Affonso Arinos de Mello Franco
  2. Alberto da Costa e Silva
  3. Alberto Venancio Filho
  4. Alfredo Bosi
  5. Ana Maria Machado
  6. Antonio Carlos Secchin
  7. Antônio Torres
  8. Arnaldo Niskier
  9. Cândido Mendes de Almeida
  10. Joaquim Falcão
  11. Carlos Nejar
  12. Celso Lafer
  13. Cícero Sandroni
  14. Cleonice Berardinelli
  15. Domício Proença Filho
  16. Eduardo Portella
  17. Evaldo Cabral de Mello
  18. Evanildo Bechara
  19. Evaristo de Moraes Filho
  20. Fernando Henrique Cardoso
  21. Arno Wehling
  22. Geraldo Holanda Cavalcanti
  23. Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
  24. João Almino
  25. José Murilo de Carvalho
  26. José Sarney
  27. Luiz Paulo Horta
  28. Lygia Fagundes Telles
  29. Marco Lucchesi
  30. Marco Maciel
  31. Marcos Vinicios Rodrigues Vilaça
  32. Merval Pereira
  33. Murilo Melo Filho
  34. Nélida Piñon
  35. Cacá Diegues
  36. Paulo Coelho
  37. Rosiska Darcy de Oliveira
  38. Geraldo Carneiro
  39. Sergio Paulo Rouanet
  40. Tarcísio Padilha
  41. Edmar Bacha

    Gallery of the Immortals