At the beginning of 1903, Machado de Assis congratulated Mário de Alencar, recently promoted to the Ministry of Justice.
-
Handwritten letter from Machado de Assis to Mário de Alencar.
- A leaf.
- 14.5 cm x 21.5 cm.
- In Portuguese.
- No location information, January 3, 1903.
- Average state of conservation.
- Unique piece.
My dear Mario,
This is what it means to start a new year off right. Receive a big hug from us for your promotion, and if you get enough (I think there will be some left over), share it with the whole family. Old friend.
Axe of Assisi
3-1-1903
Machado de Assis (1839-1908), probably the most renowned Brazilian writer inside and outside Brazil, even though he was not always considered as such, 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 the death of his wife. 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 Internal Affairs, José Joaquim Seabra.
Machado de Assis considered José de Alencar his father of consideration. During the founding of the ABL, he chose him as his patron and helped him sponsor the publication of the book Iracema. The story repeated itself with Mário de Alencar and some experts on the works of Machado de Assis consider that the writer was a kind of surrogate father (and even biological, but there is no proof) for Mário de Alencar, 33 years younger, who was orphaned by his famous father when he was only five years old .
The few letters by Machado de Assis that have survived to this day were, for the most part, written when he was a civil servant in the State Secretariat 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, such as this one, are even rarer and sought after by collectors. Most of them are found in public institutions, such as the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
