Aurélio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira
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Aurélio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira (May 3, 1910 – February 28, 1989) was a Brazilian lexicographer, philologist, translator, and writer, best known for editing the Novo Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, a major dictionary of the Portuguese language.
His family name was originally spelled Hollanda, but was changed to Holanda, presumably to follow the Portuguese spelling reform of 1943.
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[edit] Biography
Aurélio was born in Passo de Camaragibe, Alagoas state, Brazil. In 1923 he moved to the state capital Maceió, where at age 14 he started giving private lessons of Portuguese. At age 15 he was hired by a local school (Ginásio Primeiro de Março) as a first grade teacher.
He graduated in law at the Faculdade de Direito do Recife in 1936, and in that same year started teaching French, Portuguese, and Literature at a public high school in Alagoas, the Colégio Estadual de Alagoas. In 1937–1938 he also served as director of the Maceió City Library.
In 1938 he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he taught Brazilian Literature and Portuguese at local high schools, the Colégio Pedro II and the Colégio Anglo-Americano.
It was in Rio that he started his career as a writer, by publishing articles, tales and chronicles in the local press. Bewtween 1939 and 1943, he was acting secretary of the Revista do Brasil.
Aurélio started his career as a lexicographer in 1941, as a collaborator of the Pequeno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa ("Small Dictionary of the Portuguese Language"). In 1942 he published a book of short stories, Dois Mundos ("Two Worlds"), which earned him a prize by the prestigious Brazilian Literary Academy. In 1943 he collaborated with the Dicionário Enciclopédico sponsored by the Brazilian Book Institute. In 1945 he took part in the First Brazilian Writers Conference in São Paulo. Between 1944 and 1949 he was a member of the Brazilian Writers Association (Rio de Janeiro branch).
In 1945 he married Marina Baird, through whom he would have two children, Aurélio and Maria Luísa, and five grandchildren.
Between 1947 and 1960 Aurélio authored various texts for the Conto da Semana ("Weekly Tale") section of the newspaper Diário de Notícias. Starting in 1950 he also authored the column Enriqueça o Seu Vocabulário ("Enrich Your Vocabulary") for the Brazilian edition of Reader's Digest; these columns were later published as a book.
Between 1954 and 1955 he lectured Brazilian Studies at the Universidad Autonoma de México, on a grant by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.
He was elected for the Brazilian Literary Academy on May 4, 1961, and inaugurated on December 18, 1961, taking over seat number 30, formerly of Antônio Austregésilo.
Inspired by his love of the Portuguese language, he decided to produce his own dictionary. After several years of work, in 1975 he published the Novo Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa ("New Dictionary of the Portuguese Language") which would be for many decades the reference lexicon in Brazil — to the point that Aurélio and Aurelião ("big Aurélio") became popular synonyms of "dictionary". (It is said that his collaborators once proposed to add that entry to the dictionary, but Aurélio vetoed it.) This book went through dozens of reprints and revisions, and spawned several derivative editions.
Aurélio was also member of the Academia Brasileira de Filologia, of the Pen Clube do Brasil (Brazilian section of the International Writers Association) of the Brazilian Folklore Commission, of the Alagoas Literary Academy, of the Alagoas Historical and Geographical Institute, and of the Hispanic Society of America.
[edit] Books
- Dois Mundos (1942).
- O Romance Brasileiro de 1752 a 1930, a survey of Brazilian novels (1952).
- Enriqueça o Seu Vocabulário, collected columns from Seleções do Reader's Digest (1958).
- Território Lírico, essays on poetry (1958).
- Vocabulário Ortográfico Brasileiro (1969).
- O Chapéu de Meu Pai, revised and condensed edition of Dois Mundos, (1974).
- Novo Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, nicknamed "Aurelião" (1975).
- Minidicionário da Língua Portuguesa, nicknamed "Miniaurélio" (1977).
- Dicionário Aurélio Infantil da Língua Portuguesa, a children's dictionary, with illustrations by Ziraldo (1989).
[edit] Articles and essays
- Linguagem e Estilo de Eça de Queirós, essay on Portuguese writer Eça de Queirós; in Livro do Centenário de Eça de Queirós (1945).
- Enriqueça o Seu Vocabulário, monthly columns in Seleções do Reader's Digest (1950–1958).
[edit] Translations and critical editions
- Mar de Histórias, with Paulo Rónai, an anthology of tales from the world's literature; volume I (1945), volume II (1951), volume III (1958), volume IV (1963), volume V (1981).
- Poemas de Amor, love poems by Amaru.
- Pequenos Poemas em Prova, poems by Charles Baudelaire.
- Contos Gauchescos e Lendas do Sul, tales about Southern Brazil by Simões Lopes Neto (1949).
- Roteiro Literário do Brasil e de Portugal, with Álvaro Lins, an anthology of Portuguese-language literature (1956).
[edit] Trivia
- He was the uncle of popular Brazilian musician Chico Buarque.
[edit] External links
- Biography at the Brazilian Literary Academy site.
