Handwritten letter from Machado de Assis (1903)
Handwritten letter from Machado de Assis (1903)
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Comes with Certificate of Authenticity and Digital Warranty ©
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This item is no longer available. However, we may be able to put you in touch with its owner – perhaps they would accept your offer? – or, alternatively, suggest other items of similar interest, without any obligation. Contact us via WhatsApp: +55 31 98221-5758 or email: contato@glorias.com.br
In early 1903, Machado de Assis congratulated Mário de Alencar, recently promoted at the Ministry of Justice.
- Handwritten letter from Machado de Assis to Mário de Alencar.
- One sheet.
- 14.5 cm x 21.5 cm.
- In Portuguese.
- No information on location, January 3, 1903.
- Fair condition.
- Unique piece.
My dear Mario,
This is how to start a new year well. Receive from me a tight hug for the promotion, and if there's enough (I believe there will be), share it with the whole family. Old friend.
Machado de Assis
3-1-1903
Machado de Assis (1839-1908), arguably the most renowned Brazilian writer inside and outside Brazil, even if not always considered so, covered all literary genres, and his books became classics of Portuguese literature.
He wrote this letter in 1903, in the last period of his life, before publishing his last works and falling into a deep depression, a consequence of his wife's death. The recipient of this friendly text is Mário de Alencar (1872-1925), writer and son of José de Alencar (1829-1877), a great friend of Machado. Mário de Alencar, a civil servant, had just been promoted to advisor to the Minister of Justice and Interior Affairs, José Joaquim Seabra.
Machado de Assis considered José de Alencar as a father figure. During the founding of the ABL, he chose him as his patron and helped sponsor the publication of the book Iracema. The story repeated itself with Mário de Alencar, and some specialists in the works of Machado de Assis consider that the writer was a kind of substitute father (and even biological, though there is no proof) for Mário de Alencar, 33 years his junior, who was orphaned by his famous father at just five years of age.
The few letters of Machado de Assis preserved to this day were, for the most part, written when he was a public servant at the Secretariat of State of the Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce, and Public Works, a position he assumed the year after the publication of his first novel, and which guaranteed his livelihood until the end of his life. Letters with more personal content, like this one, are even rarer and sought after by collectors. Most of them are in public institutions, such as the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

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