Lêdo Ivo | |
|---|---|
 From the collection of the Brazilian National Archives | |
| Born | 18 February 1924 |
| Died | 23 December 2012 (aged 88) |
| Occupation(s) | Poet novelist essayist journalist |
Lêdo Ivo (18 February 1924 – 23 December 2012) was a Brazilian poet, novelist, essayist and journalist.[1][2] He was member of theBrazilian Academy of Letters, elected in 1986.[3]
Lêdo Ivo was born in 1924 inMaceió, capital ofAlagoas state in northeastern Brazil. He settled in 1940 inRecife, where he completed his training. In 1943, he moved toRio de Janeiro to enroll in law school, while also working for the literary supplements as a professional journalist. He married Leda Maria Sarmento Ivo de Medeiros (1923-2004), with whom he had three children.
His first book was published in 1944, a collection of poems titledAs imaginações. The following year he publishedOde e Elegia, which was awarded the Olavo Bilac Prize of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and is a turning point in the history of Brazilian poetry. The death ofMário de Andrade in 1945 led to a generational change in Brazilian poetry whose rule was "an invitation to transgression", with the triumph of purely poetical structures.[4] His literary work would be enhanced in the following decades by books of poetry, novels, short stories and essays or reports. Ivo's first novel,As Alianças, went through several editions and was awarded the Graça Aranha Foundation Prize in 1947. He continued withO Caminho sem Adventura (1948),O sobrinho do General (1964) andNinho de cobras (published in English asSnake's Nest) (1973), one of his biggest successes, an allegory of totalitarianism of the military dictatorship ofGetúlio Vargas. His last novel wasA morte do Brasil(1984).
In 1949 Ivo spoke at theMuseum of Modern Art of São Paulo in a conference titledThe Generation of 1945; in the same year he received a degree in law, a profession he would never exercise, preferring to devote himself to journalism. In 1953 he visited several European countries for long periods. In 1963 he spent two months in universities in the USA, by invitation of the Government. In 1986 Ivo was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters. In 2009 he was awarded thePremio Casa de Las Américas.
Ledo Ivo was also a translator. He translated into Portuguese works of authors likeAlbrecht Goes,Jane Austen,Maupassant,Rimbaud andDostoyevsky.
He published two memoirs,Confissões de um Poeta (1979), which was awarded the prize of the Cultural Foundation of the Federal District, andO Aluno Relapso (1991).
