Brazilian Academy of Letters

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Academia Brasileira de Letras ( pronunciation (help·info) English: Brazilian Academy of Letters) is a Brazilian literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century by a group of 40 writers and poets inspired by the Académie Française. The first president, Machado de Assis, declared its foundation on December 15, 1896, with the statutes being passed on January 28, 1897. On July 20 of the same year the Academy was established. The Brazilian Academy of Letters is, according to its statutes, the authority on the "national language" of Brazil (the Portuguese language). It is comprised to this day of 40 members, known as "immortals", chosen from among the citizens of Brazil who have published recognized works or books of literary value. The position of "immortal" is awarded for the recipient's lifetime. New members are admitted by a vote of the Academy members when one of the "chairs" become vacant. The chairs are numbered and bear the names of their first incumbents. The academicians use formal gala gilded uniforms with a sword (which is called "fardão") when participating in official meetings of the Academy. During periods of dictatorship and military régime, the Academy's neutrality in choosing proper members dedicated to the literary profession was compromised when it elected politicians with few or no contributions to literature, such as ex-president Getúlio Vargas. One exception to this is former Brazilian president and senator José Sarney, who is a well-published regional novelist in his own right. The Academy, which was a purely male affair until the groundbreaking election of novelist Rachel de Queiroz in 1977 for chair No. 5, now has four women members (10% of its total membership), but one of them, Nélida Piñon, served as president in 1996-7.

The Academy, thanks to sound management and good revenues in excess of $4 million a year, is well off financially. It owns a skyscraper with 28 floors (Palácio Austregésilo de Athaide), in a valued area in the center of Rio, which the Academy rents for office space, generating 70% of its current revenue. The rest comes from rental of other buildings, which were legated by book editor Francisco Alves, in 1917, and from financial investments. This comfortable situation allows for paying a "jeton" to each academician. The ABL is located just by its side, in a beautiful neoclassical building, which is named "Petit Trianon". It was donated by the government of France in 1923 and is so named because it is a copy of the Petit Trianon palace in Versailles, near Paris, France.

It has recently inaugurated one of the largest public libraries in Rio, with 90,000 volumes and a huge multimedia center.

The Academy annually awards several literary prizes: the Prêmio Machado de Assis (the most important literature prize in the country, awarded for lifework), and the ABL prizes for poetry, for fiction and drama, for essays, critic and history of the literature, and for children's literature. In 2005 the Afonso Arino de Mello Franco Prize was also established.