Writer and journalist Ruy Castro took office today (3) as a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL). The event took place at the institution’s headquarters, in downtown Rio de Janeiro. He took over chair number 13, which belonged to the diplomat and former Minister of Culture Sergio Paulo Rouanet, who died in July last year at the age of 88. The founder of Chair 13 is the Viscount of Taunay and its patron, Franscisco Otaviano. Others who occupied this place were Francisco de Assis Barbosa, Augusto Meyer, Hélio Lobo, Sousa Bandeira, Martins Júnior and Francisco de Castro.
In his inauguration speech, Ruy Castro said he felt honored by the opportunity to now be among emblematic names of letters and to assume a chair that already had famous occupants.
“My entry into this house follows a 125-year-old tradition. The Academia Brasileira de Letras has always been the home of workers of the word”, he said during the presentation, adding: “Chair 13, which thanks to your trust I have the honor to occupy from today, is characterized by welcoming personalities for whom the word was an instrument of action. The responsibility of succeeding them is no small one and there are words to do justice to this task”.
The writer’s election to ABL took place on October 6, 2022. He was born in Caratinga, Minas Gerais, and moved to Rio de Janeiro as a child. He graduated in Social Sciences at the National Faculty of Philosophy (FNFi), currently the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). As a reporter, he began working on the Morning mail in 1967, later alternating between different press vehicles in Rio and São Paulo, such as Jornal do Brasil and Folha de São Paulo. His career as a writer began in the 1990s and includes biographies of Garrincha, Nelson Rodrigues and Carmen Miranda.
Castro takes over from Sérgio Rouanet – Brazilian Academy of Letters/Disclosure
Other highlights were the works Chega de Saudade: The History and Stories of Bossa Nova, A Movie is for Storm of Rhythms, The Passionate Reader and an essay about Rio: Carnival on Fire: Chronicle of a Too Exciting City. Among the awards, she won the Esso Literature Prize, the Nestlé Prize for Brazilian Literature, four Jabutis and the Machado de Assis Prize, from the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Ruy Castro’s books have been translated into different languages and have editions in Russia, Turkey, Japan, Poland, Italy, Spain, United States, England, Germany and Portugal.
“As a writer, I have spoken of many Brazilian men and women of the 20th century, all masters of their craft. Masters of a culture that has not yet been fully studied, because it is practiced in popular vehicles, cheap books, scandalous plays, radio programs full of noise, films that have been lost, records that are easy to break”, said the writer. And he ended the speech with quotes from some of those names. “Enter this house with me: Nelson Rodrigues, Garrincha, Carmen Miranda, João Gilberto, Tom Jobim, Dolores Duran, Lúcio Alves, Juca Machado, Orestes Barbosa, Vinicius de Moraes, Pixinguinha, Ary Barroso, among others. And all of Rio de Janeiro”.
