Correspondence of Jorge Amado and Zélia Gattai (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s)

From the 1960s onwards, the couple Jorge Amado and Zélia Gattai tell their lives in letters to their friends in London.

• Exceptional set of 54 letters, handwritten or typed, notes mainly from Jorge Amado - and his wife Zélia - to the couple of friends Antônio and Zora Olinto. Also 8 envelopes.
• In Portuguese.
• Various sizes.
• Paris, London, Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia. Years 1965 (1), 1975 (12), 1976 (9), 1977 (6), 1978 (5), 1979 (1), 1983 (2), 1984 (3), 1985 (5), 1988 (2) , 1991 (1) + no dates (7).
• Excellent condition overall.
• Unique set.

Some extracts

• Jorge | I've been at my cousins' farm since the middle of last week, reviewing a story - how to classify it I don't know... it's not for children, it's a story about animals - that I wrote in Paris in 1948.
  
  
• Jorge | I'm in Salvador, where I arrived two days ago to meet a French film producer, Claire Duval, producer of “Emmanuelle”, among other films. She came to buy the film rights to “Os Pastores da Noite”, which should be directed by Marcel Camus.
  
  
• Jorge | TV Globo started broadcasting a soap opera adapted from “Gabriela”, it seems to me that it was successful.
  
  
• Jorge | My work for the last month has been all about film stuff.
  
  
• Jorge | My life has become hell, I don't have a minute left for myself (...) I leave Salvador to continue my book, stopping at the first pages.
  
  
• Zélia | Jorge decided to restructure the entire second part of the book. Result: out of 215 pages, page 85 returned. A huge amount of work, but it worked, the story took on another dimension.
  
  
• Zélia | Jorge is working like crazy, knock, knock, knock, on the machine from morning to night.
  
  
• Zélia | I don't think there's much left, the story (“Tieta”) is practically ready with just a few details missing. If everything goes well in April, the world will be talking about it.
  
  
• Zélia | The film “Dona Flor” is the biggest box office success (...) It's a shame that Jorge didn't believe in national cinema and gave up percentages, selling the rights for four cents. Even though we didn't make any profit from this success, we are happy, we think the film is honest and enjoyable to watch.
  
  
• Zélia | We have a full house (...). First it was Georges Moustaki who is never alone. (...) And behind fame came girls of various ages and nationalities. The house has moved a lot in the three weeks of your stay here.
  
  
• Zélia | Bahia, on the eve of Carnival and in the heat of the holidays, is teeming with tourists. The order that the employees have is to say that we are away, that Jorge works on a farm. Likewise, there are those who do not believe and who insist.

My opinion about this correspondence

The most adapted author in cinema, theater, Carnival and, above all, on Brazilian television with countless successful soap operas, Jorge Amado (1912 - 2001) was one of the most famous writers in Brazilian literature. Popular, his work has been translated in 55 countries and 49 languages.

A great admirer of Jorge Amado's work, Zélia (1916 - 2008) began working with Jorge Amado in 1945 in the movement for amnesty for political prisoners. Shortly afterwards, the two writers got married and Zélia decided to help her husband by proofreading and typing his original manuscripts on the typewriter. They lived in Rio de Janeiro, Paris and Czechoslovakia, where Zélia began the project of photographing Jorge, allowing a record of all the key events in the writer's life. Finally, they moved to Salvador, Bahia, their homeland.

Antonio Olinto and Zora Seljan were among the closest friends of Jorge Amado and Zélia Gattai. Between visits, correspondence between the two couples was intense.

Afro-Brazilian culture was a constant theme, given the interest that Olinto and Zora had in the subject; One of the other prominent themes is the intense harassment suffered by Jorge Amado, who was often forced to leave Bahia accompanied by Zélia to find some peace in London, the capital where Olinto lived with his wife; Among the other topics discussed by Amado and Zélia, there is also news about the Candomblés of Bahia, Jorge's writing process, the books released by his friends (Olinto and Zora were prolific writers), trips they made to Italy and France, the The daily life of the Bahia house is always full of visits - including from other celebrities - and business relationships with television and cinema.

Here we have an exceptional set covering three decades of the lives and careers of Jorge and Zélia Amado. Photos available on demand.