{"id":245645,"date":"2017-08-29T14:53:30","date_gmt":"2017-08-29T17:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=245645\/"},"modified":"2017-09-08T15:50:40","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T18:50:40","slug":"lobatos-predecessors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/lobatos-predecessors\/","title":{"rendered":"Lobato\u2019s predecessors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/a> Cover of Versos para os pequeninos<\/em>, a previously unpublished book written between 1886 and 1897…Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In late February 2017, Versos para os pequeninos\u00a0<\/em>[Verses for little ones] was finally released, after remaining unpublished for at least 120 years. Written between 1886 and 1897 by Jo\u00e3o K\u00f6pke (1852-1926)\u2014law school graduate, educator, and native of Rio de Janeiro State\u2014these 24 children\u2019s poems were recovered by researchers at the University of Campinas (Unicamp). They have joined the ranks of discoveries by specialists from other universities around the country that have uncovered Brazilian authors and shed light on the workings of the publishing market for children\u2019s books in the late 19th through early 20th centuries. A network of publishers, writers, promoters, and readers had begun taking shape decades before the 1920 release of A menina do narizinho arrebitado <\/em>[The girl with the little pug nose], the first book by S\u00e3o Paulo writer Jos\u00e9 Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato (1882-1948), author of a vast and valued collection of works (see <\/em>Pesquisa FAPESP<\/a> Issue n\u00ba157 and special issue <\/a><\/em>Pequisa FAPESP 50 Years<\/em>). Recent studies echo the finding that Lobato modernized Brazilian children\u2019s literature but did not create it, contradicting what past researchers and writers had said. One of the author\u2019s first biographers, S\u00e3o Paulo writer Edgard Cavalheiro (1911-1958), discarded any forerunners when he said that \u201cchildren\u2019s literature practically didn\u2019t exist in Brazil\u201d and \u201cthere were only tales of a folk nature\u201d before Lobato\u2014observations often cited in the research.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a 1919 letter to a friend, Lobato remarked that he had nothing to read his children except Jo\u00e3o K\u00f6pke\u2019s book of fables. He was referring to the quality of available works, which were adaptations of European books and even books by Brazilian authors, but this isn\u2019t the absolute truth,\u201d says Marisa Lajolo, professor at both Unicamp and Mackenzie University, who explored the topic in her book Literatura infantil brasileira: Uma nova\/outra nova hist\u00f3ria<\/em> [Brazilian children\u2019s literature: A new\/another new history] (FTD-PUC Press, 2017), written in collaboration with Regina Zimmermann and released in April 2017. \u201cIn 1920, the print shop that was preparing the first edition of A menina do narizinho arrebitado <\/em>informed Lobato that K\u00f6pke\u2019s Primeiro livro de leitura <\/em>[First reader] would serve as the model in printing the story.\u201d According to Lajolo, Lobato brought radical change to children\u2019s literature, \u201cas the Brazilian modernists of 1922 did to adult literature.\u201d Starting in the 1930s, Lobato was much more in the public eye than any other author before him.<\/p>\n

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Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/a> …excerpt from one of the book\u2019s poems, \u201cO balan\u00e7o<\/em>\u201dReproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

K\u00f6pke\u2019s oldest son, Winckelmann K\u00f6pke (1886-1951), was the first holder of the original 54-page manuscript of Versos para os pequeninos<\/em>; the handwritten poems were ordered sequentially and accompanied by full-page illustrations cut from other books, meant to serve as a reference for whoever might redraw them. Winckelmann probably gave the manuscript to his son Jos\u00e9, who passed it along to his oldest daughter\u2014and Jo\u00e3o K\u00f6pke\u2019s great-granddaughter\u2014Maria Izabel K\u00f6pke Ramos. One of Maria Izabel\u2019s sisters, Maria Lygia K\u00f6pke Santos, mentioned the book in her doctoral dissertation, defended in 2013 at the University of Campinas School of Education (FE-Unicamp). She later gave the originals to her advisor, Norma Ferreira, professor at FE-Unicamp. Ferreira analyzed Versos<\/em> in her postdoctoral thesis, presented in 2014 and now published in book form, along with the poems.<\/p>\n

In 1886, after forging a respected career as an educator at schools in the cities of S\u00e3o Paulo and Campinas, K\u00f6pke moved to Rio de Janeiro and founded the Henrique K\u00f6pke Institute, named after his father. Through 1897, the institute functioned as a private school and afforded K\u00f6pke a platform from which he could launch his own primers and literacy books for children. On the cover of the manuscript of Versos<\/em>, in large handwritten letters, K\u00f6pke presents himself as director of the institute. According to Ferreira, K\u00f6pke\u2019s idea in writing the book was to provide children with an enjoyable reading experience and also apply the analytical literacy teaching method that he had developed in other books, the first of which was released in 1884 by the Francisco Alves publishing house.<\/p>\n

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Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/a> Jo\u00e3o Felpudo on the cover of the magazine O Tico-Tico<\/em>, 1925Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The poems in Versos <\/em>recount happy stories about the moon, grandparents, games and toys, animals, and children\u2019s songs in the form of simple rhymes (excerpts from the poem <\/em>\u201cO balan\u00e7o<\/a>\u201d [The swing] appear in the background illustration<\/em>). \u201cVersos para os pequeninos <\/em>reveals another facet of Jo\u00e3o K\u00f6pke, and more strikingly than his published works: that of an author who wants to win over young readers by portraying a children\u2019s universe that questions knowledge, truth, and reality,\u201d Ferreira wrote in her postdoctoral thesis.<\/p>\n

Ferreira believes that the free-spiritedness and informal nature of the poems did not conform to the predominant teaching methods of the early 20th century, which prized edifying poems and well-behaved children, like those presented in Livro das crian\u00e7as <\/em>[Children\u2019s book], by S\u00e3o Paulo educator Zalina Rolim (1867-1961), published in 1897. \u201cK\u00f6pke was quite critical of the era\u2019s educational proposals, such as the pedagogical plan adopted in establishing kindergartens, which, he argued, had crowded, closed classrooms, short breaks between classes, and inexperienced teachers,\u201d says Ferreira. \u201cDecades later, the poems\u2019 irreverent tone became a trademark of Lobato\u2019s style.\u201d<\/p>\n

Der Struwwelpeter in Brazil<\/strong>
\nMeanwhile, historian Patr\u00edcia Raffaini was nearing the end of her postdoctoral research at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP). In early 2016, she was investigating old newspapers on the National Library site when she stumbled across the following advertisement, in the December 4, 1860, issue of the Rio de Janeiro newspaper Jornal do Commercio<\/em>: \u201cJo\u00e3o Felpudo \u2013 Happy stories for mischievous children with 24 exquisite paintings.\u201d The ad constituted a record of the first Brazilian edition of Der Struwwelpeter, <\/em>released in Germany in 1844 to great success. Written by physician Heinrich Hoffmann for his 3-year-old son, the book featured plentiful illustrations and short stories about children who were severely punished because they did not like to take baths or eat their soup. Raffaini had discovered that the original translator was Judge Henrique Velloso de Oliveira (1804-1861), possibly one of those responsible for the Brazilian title, Jo\u00e3o Felpudo<\/em>, or \u201cslovenly John,\u201d an adaptation from the original title of Struwwelpeter<\/em>, which translates literally as \u201cslovenly Peter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/a> Advertisement for the 1860 Brazilian edition (above<\/em>); and drawing from the original book, 1844Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Raffaini later came across other advertisements for Jo\u00e3o Felpudo<\/em> in the newspaper Jornal do Commercio<\/em>, signaling one of the ways that Editora Laemmert publishing house promoted its books. Raffaini had already noted that Rio de Janeiro publisher Pedro Quaresma (1863-1921), owner of Livraria do Povo bookstore, invested in half-page ads to promote the 1894 re-launching of a Brazilian book entitled Contos da carochinha <\/em>[Bedtime tales]\u2014because the first run of 5,000 copies had sold out in less than a month. Contos da carochinha<\/em> was the first in a series of books edited by Rio de Janeiro journalist Alberto Figueiredo Pimentel (1869-1914), which aimed to use colloquial language to retell fables of talking animals, werewolves, saints, and fairies originally written by European authors. Quaresma hoped to create a more popular brand of children\u2019s literature with these books, by offering simpler, cheaper editions than the refined translations put out by German-owned Laemmert, French-owned Garnier, and Francisco Alves, a Portuguese publishing house.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market for children\u2019s and young adult books was thriving in the late 19th century, a time when we thought there was little or almost nothing available for young readers,\u201d says Raffaini. \u201cPublishers were investing in this market, and many books, like Jo\u00e3o Felpudo<\/em>, had already been translated. The production of books written by Brazilian authors was getting started.\u201d Raffaini began her research with a list of 20 titles of children\u2019s books published from 1860 to 1920, identified at the National Library and the Royal Portuguese Reading Room, both in Rio de Janeiro. By scouring used bookstores across the country over the next three years, she gathered 70 different titles.<\/p>\n

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Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/a> Books by Brazilian authors: \u00c1lbum das crian\u00e7as<\/em> [Children\u2019s album], by Figueiredo Pimentel, 1897…Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\u201cOne of the forerunners of Brazilian children\u2019s literature was the novelist J\u00falia Lopes de Almeida (1862-1934),\u201d reports Nelly Novaes Coelho, professor emeritus at USP and one of the leading experts on the subject, in her book Panorama hist\u00f3rico da literatura infantil\/juvenil<\/em> [Historical panorama of children\u2019s and young adult literature] (Amarilys, 2010). In 1886, J\u00falia Lopes published Contos infantis <\/em>[Children\u2019s stories], featuring 60 stories in prose and verse, written in collaboration with her sister Adelina Lopes Vieira. This was followed in 1907 by Hist\u00f3rias da nossa terra<\/em> [Stories of our land] and in 1917 by Era uma vez <\/em>[Once upon a time], all of which went into second printings. \u201cConcomitant with an increase in the number of translations and adaptations of literary books for the children and young adult public,\u201d writes Coelho in her book, \u201cthere was a growing awareness in Brazil that the country urgently needed its own literature for Brazilian children and youth, a literature that valued that which is Brazilian.\u201d She also sees Pimentel as \u201cthe first intellectual to popularize books, through more accessible editions of classic authors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond literary criticism<\/strong>
\nWriters before Lobato had already been cited in a number of books and sites, such as Unicamp\u2019s Memory of Reading project (bit.ly\/LiteraInfant), which presents 19 authors from 1880 to 1910, along with their major works. Further research turns up a representative of an even more distant past, Rio Grande do Norte native N\u00edsia Floresta (1809-1885), an educator who opened a high school for girls in Rio de Janeiro and who wrote poems, novels, and novellas. Conselhos \u00e0 minha filha<\/em> [Advice for my daughter] came out in 1842, while the novellas Fany ou o modelo das donzelas<\/em> [Fany, or the model of young maidens] and Daciz ou a jovem completa<\/em> [Daciz, or the compleat young woman] were released in 1847.<\/p>\n

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Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/a> …and Cantigas das crian\u00e7as e do povo<\/em> [Children\u2019s and folk songs], by Alexina Magalh\u00e3es Pinto, 1911Reproductions Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>What researchers in S\u00e3o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Mato Grosso, Cear\u00e1, and other states have done is look beyond the stories told in the books. \u201cWe\u2019ve left behind the angle of literary criticism\u2014which only highlights what was good\u2014and entered into cultural history, which considers what was read, regardless of its quality; who produced it and how and where; and who consumed it,\u201d explains historian Gabriela Pellegrino Soares, professor at the USP School of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences (FFLCH) and author of the book Semear horizontes<\/em> [Sowing horizons] (Editora da UFMG, 2007), which examines the formation of the publishing market for children\u2019s books in Argentina and Brazil. \u201cExploring the mechanisms behind the production and circulation of books is a very fruitful way to learn about an era\u2019s ideas and its representations of the world,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Throughout the 19th century, books for adults and children circulated mainly in Brazil\u2019s state capitals, despite the high illiteracy rate, which stood at 80% in 1872, when the first nationwide census put the country\u2019s population at nearly 10 million. It is believed that the rate was lower\u2014perhaps 50%\u2014in Rio de Janeiro, then the federal capital. \u201cBrazil had been heavily importing books, including children\u2019s, since the 18th century,\u201d says M\u00e1rcia Abreu, professor at Unicamp\u2019s Institute of Language Studies. Abreu heads a research project on the trans-Atlantic circulation of printed matter (see <\/em>Pesquisa FAPESP Issue n\u00ba 240<\/em><\/a>) and is author of Os caminhos dos livros<\/em> [The paths of books] (Mercado de Letras, 2003). \u201cReading was one of the greatest sources of entertainment back then, and free men bought a number of books every year. This made for a busy publishing sector and brisk book trade; books were often imported and, after 1808, a great deal of printing was done in Brazil as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

A consumer market was taking root, comprised of a growing contingent of immigrants, free men, and liberal professionals or wage earners. By 1860, the city of Rio de Janeiro boasted an estimated 17 bookstores and 30 print shops. Today, even though bookstores are closing their doors one after another, children\u2019s literature constitutes a vibrant market. In 2014, 7,802 children\u2019s titles were published in Brazil, totaling 37 million books, according to the Brazilian Book Chamber.<\/p>\n

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Patr\u00edcia Hansen \/ Hemeroteca National Library<\/span><\/a> Advertisement featuring the work of LobatoPatr\u00edcia Hansen \/ Hemeroteca National Library<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

After Lobato<\/strong>
\n\u201cMonteiro Lobato was so important that he overshadowed earlier writers. Nobody talks about Olavo Bilac or Tales de Andrade anymore,\u201d says journalist Laura Sandroni, author of the book De Lobato a Bojunga \u2013 As reina\u00e7\u00f5es renovadas<\/em> [From Lobato to Bojunga: mischief-making renewed] (Agir, 1987), as well as creator and director of the National Foundation for Children\u2019s and Young Adult Literature (FNLIJ) for nearly 20 years. Lobato staked his claim with a body of work encompassing 22 books written in irreverent, lively colloquial language that addressed the issues of the day rather than talking about some far-off land of the future, as previous school books had done. His books were backed by heavy promotion (Lobato himself set aside 500 copies of A menina do narizinho arrebitado <\/em>to send to schools and hasten the title\u2019s welcome), and by 1943 over one million copies had gone to print.<\/p>\n

\u201cLobato was a genius, as a writer and editor, and he himself fostered the idea that he was a pioneer,\u201d says historian Patr\u00edcia Hansen, who currently resides in Lisbon. While researching the digital collection of old newspapers at Brazil\u2019s National Library, Hansen found an ad in the November 15, 1933, issue of the magazine O Tico-Tico<\/em>, which later appeared in other publications; it introduced Hist\u00f3ria do mundo para crian\u00e7as <\/em>[A children\u2019s history of the world] as the most recent release by Companhia Editora Nacional and described the S\u00e3o Paulo writer as \u201cthe creator of children\u2019s literature in Brazil.\u201d \u201cIt was a marketing tactic that worked,\u201d Hansen concludes. \u201cThey didn\u2019t question the source.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/em>:\u00a0Intellectuals in action<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Versos para os pequeninos<\/a> (in Portuguese)<\/em><\/p>\n

Project<\/strong>
\nReading fiction in childhood: 1880-1920 (n\u00ba 13\/00454-1<\/a>); Grant Mechanism\u00a0<\/strong>Postdoctoral research grant; Principal Investigator\u00a0<\/strong>Elias Thome Saliba (USP); Grantee<\/strong>\u00a0Patr\u00edcia Tavares Raffaini; Investment <\/strong>R$240,377.83.<\/p>\n

Scientific article<\/em>
\nHANSEN, P. S. A biblioteca dos jovens brasileiros: Do car\u00e1ter did\u00e1tico da literatura infantil aos usos dos livros pelas crian\u00e7as no in\u00edcio do s\u00e9culo XX<\/a>. Escritos<\/strong>. Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 79-96. 2011.<\/p>\n

Books<\/em>
\nSOARES, G. P.\u00a0Semear horizontes: Uma hist\u00f3ria da forma\u00e7\u00e3o de leitores na Argentina e no Brasil, 1915-1954<\/strong> [Sowing horizons: a history of the formation of readers in Argentina and Brazil]. Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG, 2007.
\nABREU, M. Os caminhos dos livros<\/strong> [The paths of books]. Campinas: Mercado de Letras\/ALB\/FAPESP, 2003, 382 pp.
\nCOELHO, N. N. Panorama hist\u00f3rico da literatura infantil\/juvenil<\/strong> [Historical panorama of children\u2019s and young adult literature]. S\u00e3o Paulo: Amarilys, 2010, 320 pp.
\nSANDRONI, L. De Lobato a Bojunga \u2013 As reina\u00e7\u00f5es renovadas <\/strong>[From Lobato to Bojunga: mischief-making renewed]. Rio de Janeiro: Agir, 1987, 181 pp.
\nFERREIRA, N. S. de A. Um estudo sobre os versos para os pequeninos, de Jo\u00e3o K\u00f6pke<\/strong> [A study of Jo\u00e3o K\u00f6pke\u2019s verses for little ones]. Campinas: FAPESP\/Mercado de Letras, 2017, 276 pp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brazilian authors began publishing children\u2019s books in the 19th century","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[241,245],"coauthors":[5968],"class_list":["post-245645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover","tag-history","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245645"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=245645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}