Adonias Filho

Life

Filho was born in Itajuípe, Brazil, the son of Adonias Aguiar and Rachel Bastos de Aguiar.

In 1936, 2 years after finishing high school in Salvador, he moved from the south of Bahia to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s capital at the time, where he continued his career in Journalism, previously started in Salvador. He worked in renowned newspapers such as O Correio da Manhã and Revista do Brazil. He was also a literary critic for Cadernos da "Hora Presente", from São Paulo in 1937, "A Manhã", from 1944 to 1945, along with "Jornal de Letras" (from 1955 to 1960) and "Diário de Notícias" (from 1958 to 1960). In São Paulo, he also collaborated with O Estado de S. Paulo and "Folha da Manhã".

Between 1946 and 1950, he ran the book publishing company "A Noite". He was the director of the Serviço Nacional de Teatro, in 1954, and director of the Biblioteca Nacional from 1961 to 1971. At the same time, he worked at the Agência Nacional at the Ministério da Justiça.

In 1966, he was elected vice-president of the Associação Brasileira de Imprensa and in the following year, he became a member of the Conselho Federal de Cultura. He was re-elected in 1969, 1971 and 1973. He was the presidente of the Associação Brasileira de Imprensa in 1972 and president of the Conselho Federal de Cultura from 1977 to 1990, when he died.

As a writer, Adonias Aguiar Filho searched for inspiration for his fiction in the "zona cacaueira" (Cocoa plantations) close to Ilhéus, back to his origins in the South of Bahia, where he was born and raised. This ambiance is noticed soon in his first novel, "Os servos da morte", published in 1946. In the romance novel, that reality served as an opportunity to recreate a world charged with symbolism, in the book passages as well as in the characters, bearing a tragic sense to life and the view of the world. He was part of the Grupo Festa.

The use of original and sophisticated resources, adapted to the internal violence of his characters gave Adonias Filho a fundamental role at the Literature group that created the 3rd phase of Brazilian Modernism in 1945, which was based in a return to certain more formal disciplines of writing. They were concerned about writing, on one hand, using less formal research of language, though trying to expand their regional meanings to a universal paradigm. Their work is still an integral influence in contemporary Brazilian literature and fiction.

He was honored with the 21st chair at the Brazilian Academy of Letters (Academia Brasileira de Letras) at the age of 53, May 23, 1969. The title was handed to him by his fellow writer also from Bahia, Jorge Amado. His literary work was translated to English, German, Spanish, French and Slovac.

He died in Ilhéus shortly after his wife died.

Academia Brasileira de Letras

Fifth bearer of the 21st Chair, originally given to Joaquim Serra from the Academia Brasileira de Letras, elected January 14, 1965.

Preceded by Álvaro Moreyra | Followed by Dias Gomes

Awards

Adonias Filho was awarded: