Letter of criticism from Coelho Netto's children to Valdemar Cavalcanti (1956)

In 1956, the distinguished literary critic Valdemar Cavalcanti receives a letter of complaint from the writer Coelho Netto's family.

Letter of criticism from the author Coelho Netto's three children to the literary critic Valdemar Cavalcanti. One page. In Portuguese. 22 cm x 32.7 cm. Rio de Janeiro, June 3, 1956. Restored document, in good condition. Single piece.

Valdemar Cavalcanti (1912 - 1982) was an award-winning writer, a pioneer of journalism in Brazil and of literary criticism, working for decades as a columnist for 'O Jornal' by Assis Chateaubriand. Coelho Netto (1864 - 1934) was from the old guard and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, recognized for his talent but considerably opposed by the modernists.

Tribuna da Imprensa is an important Brazilian newspaper founded in 1949: it was in it that, in 1954, Lacerda published the text suggesting that the military demand the resignation of President Getúlio Vargas, creating the scandal that would lead him to suicide.

Rafael Cavalcanti, journalist and grandson of Valdemar Cavalcanti, comments on this old letter:

(...) my grandfather worked as a literary critic for many years, in a very intense and productive cultural era. There were decades of articles and chronicles written by them. To give you an idea, its library had more than 80,000 copies, many of which were analyzed. Therefore, what I can say is that he did not always please the author in his criticisms.

After all, impartiality is one of the main requirements of journalistic activity. As I am also a journalist, it is also worth saying that we are not always so precise when we write: we think one thing and sometimes we write another. Or again: the information is not properly understood by the receiver, which I consider a fault of ours, of those who write. Or sometimes we are wrong. It is part of the journalist's work, in the case of those who criticize, and of those who write as well, including the author of books (...).

Here we have a surprising letter, witness to the relationships - sometimes complicated - between authors and journalists.