Lygia Fagundes Telles facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lygia Fagundes Telles
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Lygia de Azevedo Fagundes 19 April 1918 São Paulo, Brazil |
| Died | 3 April 2022 (aged 103) São Paulo, Brazil |
| Occupation |
|
| Language | Portuguese |
| Notable works |
|
| Spouse |
Gofredo Telles Júnior
(m. 1947; sep. 1960)Paulo Emílio Salles Gomes
(m. 1962; died 1977) |
| Children | 1 |
| Signature | |
 |
|
Lygia Fagundes Telles (born Lygia de Azevedo Fagundes; April 19, 1918 – April 3, 2022) was a famous Brazilian writer. She wrote many novels and short stories.
Lygia studied law and started publishing her writing soon after high school. She worked as a lawyer while also being a writer for most of her life. She won many important awards, including the Camões Prize. This is the biggest writing award for books in the Portuguese language. Her books also won awards in Brazil, Chile, and France. In 1985, she became the third woman to join the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
Early Life and Education
Lygia Fagundes was born in São Paulo, Brazil, on April 19, 1918. Her father, Durval de Azevedo Fagundes, was a lawyer and judge. Her mother, Maria do Rosário, was a pianist.
Because of her father's job, her family moved around the state of São Paulo a lot. They lived in different towns like Apiaí and Assis. When Lygia was eight, she moved to Rio de Janeiro with her mother for five years.
After returning to São Paulo, she finished high school in 1937. In 1938, she published her first book. It was a collection of short stories called Porões e Sobrados (Grounds and Townhouses).
In 1939, Lygia earned degrees from the University of São Paulo (USP). In 1941, she started law school at USP. She was one of only six women in a class of over one hundred men. While studying, she also worked for the government.
In 1944, she published her second book of short stories, Praia Viva (Living Beach). She graduated with her law degree in 1945. In 1947, she married Goffredo Telles Jr., who was her international law professor. Their only child, Goffredo da Silva Telles Neto, was born in 1952.
A Career in Writing
Lygia Telles continued to work for the government. She also started writing a weekly column for a newspaper in Rio called A Manhã (The Morning). In 1949, she won an award for her short story collection O Cacto Vermelho (Red Cactus).
One of her most famous books is Ciranda de Pedra (The Marble Dance), published in 1954. Lygia felt this book showed her true growth as a writer. In 1958, her book Histórias do Desencontro (Uncontrollable Stories) won another award.
In 1960, Lygia divorced. The next year, she started working as a lawyer for a state office in São Paulo. She kept this job and continued writing books until 1991. In 1962, she married film critic Paulo Emílio Salles Gomes.
Lygia kept writing many successful books over the years:
- Verão no Aquário (Summer at the Aquarium, 1963) won the Jabuti Prize in 1965.
- Antes do Baile Verde (Before the Green Ball, 1970) won a major award in France in 1969.
- As Meninas (The Girls, 1973) received many awards, including the Jabuti Prize. This novel is considered her most important work.
- Seminário dos Ratos (Seminary of the Rats, 1977) won an award for best short story.
- A Disciplina do Amor (The Discipline of Love, 1980) won her another Jabuti Prize.
_cropped.jpg)
Her novel As Meninas tells the story of three young women in the early 1970s. This was a difficult time in Brazil because of a military government that limited people's freedoms. Lygia was one of the thinkers who spoke out against this. In 1977, she helped deliver a protest letter called the Manifesto of the Thousand. It was the biggest protest by intellectuals since the government started controlling what could be published in 1968.
On October 24, 1985, Lygia Telles was chosen to join the Brazilian Academy of Letters. She was only the third woman ever to be elected to this important group of writers. After retiring from her law job in 1991, she continued to publish more books, including:
- A Noite Escura e Mais Eu (The Dark Night and More Me, 1995)
- Invenção e Memória (Invention and Memory, 2001), which won several awards, including another Jabuti Prize.
- Conspiração de Nuvens (Cloud Compromise, 2007)
.jpg)
Lygia Telles received many honors for her work. In 1985, the Brazilian government honored her. In 1998, she received an award from France and another from Chile. In 2005, she won the Camões Prize, the highest literary award for Portuguese language writers. Her books have been translated into many languages, including English, French, and Spanish. In 2016, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Death
Lygia Fagundes Telles passed away on April 3, 2022, in São Paulo. She was 103 years old. A public ceremony was held, and her body was cremated the next day. The governor of São Paulo declared three days of mourning in the state to honor her.
See also
In Spanish: Lygia Fagundes Telles para niños
- Brazilian literature
