Academia Brasileira de Letras

Foundation

The initiative was taken by Lúcio de Mendonça, concretized in preparatory meetings that began on 15 December 1896 under the presidency of Machado de Assis (elected by acclamation) in the writing of the Brazilian Journal. At these meetings, the statutes of the Brazilian Academy of Letters were approved on 28 January 1897, and its membership of forty founding members was approved. On 20 July of that year, the inaugural session was held at the Pedagogium's facility in the center of Rio de Janeiro.

Without having their own headquarters or financial resources, the meetings of the academy were held in the premises of the former National Gymnasium, in the Noble Hall of the Ministry of the Interior, in the hall of the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, especially for the solemn sessions. The joint sessions were held at the First Secretary's law office, Rodrigo Octávio, at Quitanda Street, 47.

From 1904, the academy obtained the left wing of the Brazilian Silogeo, a governmental building that housed other cultural institutions, where it remained until the conquest of its own headquarters.

Petit Trianon

The Petit Trianon in Rio de Janeiro, seat of the academy since 1923.

In 1923, thanks to the initiative of its president at the time, Afrânio Peixoto and the French ambassador, Raymond Conty, the French government donated to the academy the building of the French Pavilion, built for the Independence of Brazil's Centenary International Exposition, a replica of the Petit Trianon of Versailles, erected by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, between 1762 and 1768.

These facilities have been registered by the State Institute of Cultural Heritage (INEPAC), of the Municipal Secretary of Culture of Rio de Janeiro, since 9 November 1987. Its halls continue to the present day hosting regular meetings, solemn sessions commemorative meetings, the inauguration sessions of the new academics, as well as the traditional tea on Thursdays. They can be known by the public on guided tours or on cultural programs such as chamber music concerts, member book launches, conference cycles and plays.

On the first floor of the building, in the Hall, stands the decorated marble floor, a French crystal chandelier, a large white porcelain vase from Sèvres and four English bas-reliefs. Among other dependencies, the following stand out:

• the Noble Hall, where the solemn sessions take place;
• the French Hall, where the new member, traditionally, remains alone, in reflection;
• the Francisco Alves Room, where an oil painting on canvas by Rodolfo Amoedo is depicted, depicting a collective of nineteenth-century writers and intellectuals;
• the Hall of the Founders, decorated with period furniture and paintings by Candido Portinari;
• the Machado de Assis Room, decorated with the writer's desk, books and personal belongings, with emphasis on a portrait of him, by Henrique Bernardelli;
• the Hall of Romantic Poets has the bronze busts of Castro Alves, Fagundes Varela, Gonçalves Dias, Casimiro de Abreu and Álvares de Azevedo, by Rodolfo Bernardelli.

On the second floor there is the Tea Room, where the academics meet, on Thursdays, before the Plenary Session, the Sessions Room and the Library. The latter attends scholars and researchers, especially the collection of Manuel Bandeira.

Dictatorships

The Dictator Getúlio Vargas being invested as member of the academy in 1943.

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 when it elected politicians with few or no contributions to literature, such as ex-president and dictator Getúlio Vargas in 1943. 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 1996–97.

Nowadays

The writer Fernando Henrique Cardoso, ex-President of Brazil, taking possession as member of the academy in 2013.

The academy, thanks to revenues in excess of $4 million a year, is financially stable. It owns a skyscraper with 28 floors (Palácio Austregésilo de Athaide), 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 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 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. Sometimes, an extraordinary commemorative prize is also awarded, such as the José Lins do Rego prize, in 2001, and the Afonso Arinos prize, in 2005.

The academy also publishes a literary periodical, the Brazilian Review (Revista Brasileira), with quarterly editions.

Correspondents