14. Lesser, Welcoming, 58.
15. Fábio Koifman, Quixote nas trevas: O embaixador Souza Dantas e os refugiados do nazismo (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Record, 2002).
16. Interview with Eva Lieblich Fernandes, Mainz, September 2, 2007.
17. René Decol, “Uma certa Aracy, um chamado João,” Folha de S. Paulo, December 18, 2006. Other Brazilian diplomats who risked their careers to help Jews were Almeida Rodrigues and his wife, as well as Nogueira Porto.
18. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, February 16, 1944, Correspondências, 38–40.
19. Álvaro Lins, “A Experiência Incompleta: Clarice Lispector,” in Os mortos de sobrecasaca: Obras, autores e problemas da literatura brasileira: Ensaios e estudos, 1940–1960 (Rio de Janeiro: Editôra Civilização Brasileira, 1963), 187, quoted in Manzo, Era uma vez, 22–23. The term “magic realism” was first used in the 1920s by the German art critic Franz Roh to refer to a style of painting also known as the Neue Sachlichkeit. It was not commonly used in Latin America until the 1960s, when the Venezuelan writer Arturo Uslar Pietri popularized it in reference to (mainly Spanish American) fiction.
20. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, February 16, 1944, Correspondências, 38.
21. Lispector, “Ao correr da máquina,” in Descoberta, 367.
22. Affonso Romano de Sant’Anna, Jornal do Brasil, October 25, 1986, untitled clipping, CLA. Cf. Água viva.
23. Lispector and Montero, undated letter to Lúcio Cardoso (end of March, beginning of April 1944), Correspondências, 42.
24. Ibid., 58.
25. Ibid., 60.
26. Lispector and Montero, undated letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, February 16, 1944, Correspondências, 38.
27. Ibid.
28. Proença, “Um minuto de palestra …”
29. Lispector and Montero, undated letter to Lúcio Cardoso (end of March, beginning of April 1944), Correspondências, 42.
Chapter 15
1. While there, Clarice got in touch with Lauro Escorel, a diplomat who had published a warm review of Near to the Wild Heart and whose wife, Sara, was the only other Jewish spouse in Itamaraty. They went to lunch, where she met a young man who had recently entered the foreign service and who would become the great Pernambuco poet João Cabral de Melo Neto. Ferreira, Eu sou, 107.
2. Ibid., 109–10.
3. Lispector and Montero, letter to Lúcio Cardoso, July 25, 1944, letter to Lúcio Cardoso, mid-September 1944, Correspondências, 48, 54.
4. Interview with Eliane Gurgel Valente, Paris, December 3, 2007.
5. Lispector and Montero, letter to Lúcio Cardoso, mid-September 1944, Correspondências, 54.
6. Lispector, “Estive em Bolama, África,” in Descoberta, 381. There is another reference to this experience in “Objecto Gritante,” CLA.
7. Lispector and Montero, undated letter to Lúcio Cardoso, Correspondências, 54.
8. Interview with Tania Lispector Kaufmann, Rio de Janeiro, August 1, 2006.
9. Kaufman, Passos, 159.
10. Lispector and Montero, Correspondências, 55.
11. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, Algiers, August 19, 1944, Correspondências, 51.
12. Letter to Natércia Freire, Naples, February 29, 1945, Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon.
13. Letter to Natércia Freire, Rio de Janeiro, March 13, 1972, Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon.
14. Lispector and Montero, letter to Lúcio Cardoso, mid-September 1944, Correspondências, 55.
15. Lispector, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, August 7, 1944, in Minhas queridas, 40.
16. Issued at Lisbon, August 7, 1944, CLA.
17. Lispector and Montero, Correspondências, 49.
18. Ibid., undated letter to Lúcio Cardoso, Correspondências, 55.
19. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, Algiers, August 19, 1944, Correspondências, 51.
20. Ibid., 49–52.
21. See http://www.anvfeb.com.br/majorelza.htm.
22. Lispector and Montero, Correspondências, 50, 55.
23. Interview with Cecília Wainstok Lipka, Rio de Janeiro, July 29, 2006.
24. According to the Italian Embassy in Brasília. See http://www.ambbrasilia.esteri.it/Ambasciata_Brasilia/Menu/I_rapporti_bilaterali/Cooperazione_politica/Storia/.
25. Ferreira, Eu sou, 112–13.
26. Norman Lewis, Naples ’44 (1978; New York: Pantheon Books, 2002), 29.
27. Ibid., 79.
28. Ibid., 99.
29. Sabino and Lispector, Cartas, 7.
30. Rubem Braga, Com a F.E.B. na Itália: Crônicas (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Editora Zelio Valverde, 1945).
31. Lispector and Montero, Correspondências, 56.
32. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector, December 18, 1944, in Minhas queridas, 65.
33. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector, January 12, 1945, in Minhas queridas, 69.
34. Lispector and Montero, Lettere (Mondadori) “Quaderni della Medusa,” in Correspondências.
35. Lispector and Montero, undated letter to Lúcio Cardoso [~1944], Correspondências. 54.
36. Braga, Com a F.E.B., 74.
37. Elza Cansanção Medeiros, E foi assim que a cobra fumou (Rio de Janeiro: Marques-Saraiva, 1987), 56.
38. Braga, Com a F.E.B., 75.
39. Ibid., 80.
40. Medeiros, E foi assim, 86.
41. Interview with Nádia Batella Gotlib, Ribeirão Preto, July 23, 2006.
42. Pan. Vol. 1, Rio de Janeiro, 1935.
43. Medeiros, E foi assim, 71.
44. Elza Cansanção Medeiros, “Saldando uma dívida de gratidão,” written “seven years later,” that is, approximately 1952. CLA.
45. Interview with Major Elza Cansanção Medeiros, Rio de Janeiro, September 12, 2006.
46. Braga, Com a F.E.B., 32.
47. Lispector and Montero, letter to Lúcio Cardoso, March 26, 1945, Correspondências, 70.
48. Elza Cansanção Medeiros, “Saldando uma dívida de gratidão.”
49. Interview with Joel Silveira, Rio de Janeiro, August 25, 2006.
50. Lispector, “O maior elogio que recebi,” in Descoberta, 79.
Chapter 16
1. Interview with Eliane Gurgel Valente, Paris, December 3, 2007.
2. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector, November 13, 1944, in Minhas queridas, 58.
3. Lispector and Montero, undated letter to Lúcio Cardoso, September, Correspondências, 56.
4. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector, April 20, 1945, in Minhas queridas, 85.
5. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector, September 1, 1945, in Minhas queridas, 94.
6. Lispector and Montero, letter to Lúcio Cardoso, March 26, 1945, Correspondências, 70.
7. Lispector and Montero, letter from Lúcio Cardoso, undated (December 1944), Correspondências, 60.
8. Lispector and Montero, letter to Lúcio Cardoso, March 26, 1945, Correspondências, 70.
9. Borelli, Esboço, 11.
10. Lispector, Perto, 13 (1943 ed.).
11. Lispector, Lustre, 130.
12. Ibid., 53–54.
13. Ibid., 67–68, 87, 273.
14. Ibid., 84, 80.
15. Ibid., 103.
16. Ibid., 125–27.
17. Ibid., 60.
18. Lispector, “Carta atrasada,” in Descoberta, 288–89. The book she refers to is The Besieged City.
19. Cândido, “Perto do coração selvagem.” See also Cândido, “No raiar de Clarice Lispector,” in Vários escritos, 124–31.
20. Lispector, Lustre, 137.
21. Ibid., 64.
Chapter 17
1. Gotlib, Clarice, 194.
2. Interview with Eliane Gurgel Valente, Paris, April 16, 2006.
3. Quoted in ibid., 32. The friend, according to Eliane Gurgel Valente, was most likely Borges da Fonseca.
4. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispe
ctor Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, May 9, 1945, Correspondências, 72.
5. José Augusto Guerra, “Talvez da Europa venha a renovação,” 1949; no other information, CLA.
6. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, May 9, 1945, Correspondências, 72–74.
7. Quoted in Gotlib, Clarice, 201.
8. Claire Varin reports that Ungaretti told this to Rubem Braga, interview, Laval, Québec, January 7, 2006.
9. The chapter “La zia” (“The Aunt”), published in the magazine Prosa (Rome), CLA.
10. Lispector, A mulher que matou os peixes, 21–23.
11. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, September 1, 1945, Correspondências, 76.
12. Lispector, “Bichos—I,” in Descoberta, 359.
13. Lispector and Montero, Correspondências, 59; letter to Lúcio Cardoso [Naples, 1944].
14. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, May 9, 1945, Correspondências, 72–74.
15. Letter to Natércia Freire, August 27, 1945, Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon.
16. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector, September 1, 1945, in Minhas queridas, 94.
17. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, September 1, 1945, Correspondências, 75.
18. Lispector and Montero, undated letter to Lúcio Cardoso from Naples, Correspondências, 63.
19. Interview with Eliane Gurgel Valente, Paris, December 3, 2007.
20. Lispector and Montero, letter from Rubem Braga, March 4, 1957, Correspondências, 219.
21. Lispector, “Ao correr da máquina,” in Descoberta, 367.
22. Gilda de Mello e Souza, “O lustre,” Estado de S. Paulo, July 14, 1946.
23. Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, November 26, 1945, quoted in Borelli, Esboço, 109. Full letter in Lispector, Minhas queridas, 97.
24. Reproduced in Varin and Lispector, Rencontres, 142–43.
25. Lispector, “Trechos,” in Descoberta, 405.
26. Lispector, letter to Tania, William, and Márcia Kaufmann, February 2, 1941, in Minhas queridas, 22.
27. Quoted in Ribeiro, “Tentativa de explicação.”
28. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, September 1, 1945, Correspondências, 75.
29. Lispector, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, December 3, 1945, in Minhas queridas, 51.
30. Skidmore, Politics, 48.
31. Interview with Joel Silveira, Rio de Janeiro, August 25, 2006.
32. Interview with Ana Luisa Chafir, Rio de Janeiro, August 1, 2006.
33. According to Moacir Werneck de Castro. Fernando Sabino was also surprised by this, coming to the capital from provincial Minas Gerais. “And the women—theirs or someone else’s, or everyone’s, or nobody’s—who sat at the table with the men, discussed politics and literature with them, heard and used dirty words. In Minas there was nothing like that; it was news to me.” Fernando Sabino, O tabuleiro de damas (Rio de Janeiro: Record, 1988), 107.
34. Carvalho, Braga, 328.
35. Interview with Alberto Dines, São Paulo, July 22, 2006.
36. Interview with Humberto Werneck, São Paulo, July 23, 2006; Sabino, Tabuleiro.
37. Sabino and Lispector, Cartas, 7.
38. Ibid.
39. Humberto Werneck, O desatino da rapaziada: Jornalistas e escritores em Minas Gerais (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1992), 99.
40. According to Nelson Rodrigues, in Ruy Castro, Ela é carioca: Uma enciclopédia de Ipanema, 2nd ed. (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1999), 289.
41. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Fernando and Helena Sabino, Otto Lara Resende, and Paulo Mendes Campos, April 21, 1946, Cartas, 9.
42. Letter from Bern, May 5, 1946, quoted in Borelli, Esboço, 112–13.
43. “Letras e artes: O crime, Conto de Clarisse [sic] Lispector,” CLA. The quotes are from this version, not the subsequent “Crime do professor de matemática” published in 1961.
Chapter 18
1. Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, May 8, 1946, in Borelli, Esboço, 114.
2. Joëlle Rouchou, Samuel, duas vozes de Wainer, 2nd ed. (Rio de Janeiro: UniverCidade, 2004), 191.
3. Letter to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann, April 29, 1946, in Borelli, Esboço, 110–11.
4. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Helena Valladares Sabino, Fernando Sabino, Paulo Mendes Campos, Otto Lara Resende, April 21, 1946, Cartas, 9–10.
5. Letter to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann. April 29, 1946, in Borelli, Esboço, 110–11.
6. Lispector, “O medo de errar,” in Descoberta, 245.
7. Lispector and Montero, letter to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann, May 5, 1946, Correspondências, 80.
8. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann, December 11, 1946, in Minhas queridas, 141.
9. Lispector and Montero, letter to Lúcio Cardoso, August 13, 1947, Correspondências, 146.
10. Ribeiro, “Tentativa de explicação.”
11. Sabino and Lispector, letter from Fernando Sabino, May 6, 1946, Cartas, 15.
12. Oswald de Andrade, “[O Lustre],” Correio da Manhã, February 26, 1946; Souza, “O lustre.” Souza’s is probably the best essay on the book.
13. In Ferreira, Eu sou, 133.
14. Another reason for their silence was the appearance of a sensational debut that consumed the attention of literary Brazil. João Guimarães Rosa, a diplomat of humble provincial background, who, with his wife Aracy, had distinguished himself in wartime service in Hamburg, published Sagarana. The title was characteristic of his greatly learned and densely allusive work, the Germanic saga combined with the native Brazilian rana, a Tupí-Guarani word meaning “in the fashion of, a kind of.” The result, “A Kind of Saga,” was the most important work of fiction to appear in the country since Near to the Wild Heart.
15. Lispector and Montero, letter from Lúcio Cardoso, May 1947, Correspondências, 133.
16. Letter to [Lúcio Cardoso], [May 8, 1946?], quoted in Olga Borelli, Clarice Lispector: Esboço para um possível retrato (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira, 1981), 115.
17. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Fernando Sabino, June 19, 1946, Cartas, 21.
18. Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, May 8, 1946, in Borelli, Esboço, 114.
19. Lispector, Perto, 32 (1943 ed.), quoted in Manzo, Era uma vez, 15.
20. Letter from Maury Gurgel Valente, July 8, 1959, in Manzo, Era uma vez, 20.
21. Sabino and Lispector, letter from Fernando Sabino, July 6, 1946, Cartas, 28.
22. Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, May 12, 1946, in Borelli, Esboço, 119.
23. This letter appears in Borelli, Esboço, 122. The order is not clear in the other editions, and it does not appear in her book of collected correspondence. It is also quoted, in a different order, in Manzo, Era uma vez, 29–30.
24. Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, May 8, 1946, in Borelli, Esboço, 114.
25. Gotlib, Clarice, 226.
26. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Fernando Sabino, July 27, 1946, Cartas, 35.
27. Lispector, Perto, 32 (1943 ed.).
28. Lispector, Sopro, 52.
29. Lispector, “Lembrança de uma fonte, de uma cidade,” in Descoberta, 286.
30. Joseph A. Page, Perón, a Biography (New York: Random House, 1983), 196.
31. Quoted in Ferreira, Eu sou, 147.
32. Ibid.
33. Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, May 8, 1946, in Borelli, Esboço, 114.
34. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Fernando Sabino, June 19, 1946, Cartas, 20–23.
35. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Fernando Sabino, July 27, 1946, Cartas, 35.
36. Lispector and Montero, letter from Bluma Wainer, July 22, 1946, Correspondências, 92.
37. The spelling of the last name cannot be confirmed. The document is number CL/dp 17–300 i
n the CLA. See Eliane Vasconcellos, Inventário do arquivo Clarice Lispector (Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Cultura, Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa, Centro de Memória e Difusão Cultural, Arquivo-Museu de Literatura Brasileira, 1994), 87.
38. Franco Júnior, “Clarice, segundo Olga Borelli.”
39. Lispector, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, October 22, 1947, in Minhas queridas, 176.
40. Ulysses Girsoler, “Psychodiagnostique de Rorschach” [1947–48], CLA.
41. Letter from Ulysses Girsoler, July 9, 1947, CLA.
42. Quoted in Borelli, Esboço, 44.
43. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Fernando Sabino, July 27, 1946, Cartas, 35.
44. Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, May 8, 1946, in Borelli, Esboço, 114.
45. This same letter, in a slightly different form, appears in Lispector and Montero, Correspondências, 165–67, dated January 6, 1948. It also appears in Borelli, Esboço, 126.
Chapter 19
1. Lispector, “Lembrança de uma fonte, de uma cidade,” in Descoberta, 286.
2. Lispector, Cidade sitiada, 18, 86.
3. Benedito Nunes, “Clarice Lispector ou o naufrágio da introspecção,” Colóquio / Letras, no. 70 (1982).
4. Letter from Bluma Wainer, March 19, 1947, CLA.
5. Lispector, Cidade sitiada, 69, 130.
6. Ibid., 96, 106.
7. Letter possibly addressed to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann, 1947, in Borelli, Esboço, 130; Lispector, Cidade sitiada, 106.
8. Lispector, Cidade sitiada, 110.
9. Ibid., 111.
10. Ibid., 112, 123.
11. Lispector and Montero, letter to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann, from Paris, January, 1947, Correspondências, 116.
12. Lispector, Cidade sitiada, 174.
13. Ibid., 16.
14. Ibid., 23–26.
15. Ibid., 129, 168.
16. Ibid., 121.
17. Ibid., 18, 62, 76, 18.
18. Ibid., 172, 22.
19. Lispector, Objecto gritante (II), 143.
20. Lispector, Cidade sitiada, 32.
Why This World Page 56