Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (pronounced ZHOR-zhee; Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈʒɔʁʒi aˈmadu]; August 10, 1912 – August 6, 2001), known as Jorge Amado, was a Brazilian writer from the modernist movement. He is one of the most well-known Brazilian writers, with his books translated into about 49 languages. His stories were also made into films, such as Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands in 1976. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature at least seven times. His writing often showed a Brazil that mixed different cultures and religions, while also highlighting the challenges of social and economic differences in the country.

From 1961 until his death in 2001, he held the 23rd position in the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He won the International Nonino Prize in Italy in 1984. Between 1947 and 1951, he served as a Federal Deputy for São Paulo as a member of the Brazilian Communist Party.

Biography

Amado was born on Saturday, August 10, 1912, on a farm near the inland city of Itabuna, in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia. He was the oldest of four sons of João Amado de Faria and D. Eulália Leal. The farm was located in the village of Ferradas, which, though now a district of Itabuna, was managed by the coastal city of Ilhéus at the time. Because of this, Amado considered himself a citizen of Ilhéus. Through his experiences with the large cocoa plantations in the area, Amado learned about the hardships faced by workers who lived in difficult conditions. This theme appeared in many of his works, including The Violent Land, published in 1944.

When Amado was one year old, his family moved to Ilhéus because of a smallpox outbreak. He spent his childhood there and attended high school in Salvador, the capital of the state. By the age of 14, Amado began writing for magazines and became involved in literary groups, including the Modernist "Rebels' Academy."

Amado was the cousin of Gilberto Amado, a Brazilian lawyer, writer, journalist, and politician, and of Véra Clouzot, a Brazilian actress and screenwriter.

Amado published his first novel, The Country of Carnival, in 1931 when he was 18. He married Matilde Garcia Rosa and had a daughter, Lila, in 1933. That same year, he published his second novel, Cacau, which made him more well-known.

He studied law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro but never practiced as a lawyer. His political views made it hard for him to live under the rule of Getúlio Vargas, a dictator. In 1935, he was arrested for the first time, and two years later, his books were burned in public. His works were banned in Portugal, but in Europe, he became popular after Jubiabá was published in France. The book received praise from Albert Camus, a French author who won the Nobel Prize.

In the early 1940s, Amado worked on a literary supplement for a newspaper funded by the Nazis. Because he was a communist, Amado was forced to leave Brazil and live in exile in Argentina and Uruguay from 1941 to 1942. When he returned to Brazil, he separated from Matilde Garcia Rosa. In 1945, he was elected to the National Constituent Assembly as a representative of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB). He received more votes than any other candidate in the state of São Paulo and helped pass a law allowing freedom of religious belief.

In 1945, Amado married the writer Zélia Gattai. The same year, they had a son, João Jorge. That year, his political party was declared illegal, and its members were arrested and persecuted. Amado went into exile again, this time in France, where he stayed until 1950.

His daughter from his first marriage, Lila, died in 1949. From 1950 to 1952, Amado and Gattai lived in Czechoslovakia, where their second daughter, Paloma, was born. He also traveled to the Soviet Union and won the Stalin Peace Prize in 1951. Public documents from 2016 showed that he was investigated by the CIA during this time.

When Amado returned to Brazil in 1954, he stopped being active in politics and left the Communist Party the next year. From then on, he focused only on writing.

Amado’s second creative period began in 1958 with the novel Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, which was called by Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher, "the best example of a folk novel." In this period, Amado wrote about the lives of women and celebrated the traditions and beauty of Bahia. Other books from this time included Tereza Batista: Home from the Wars and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.

Amado’s descriptions of sexual customs in his books upset many people in Brazil during the 1950s. For several years, he could not visit Ilhéus, the setting of Gabriela, because of threats from people who believed his writing offended the city’s women. The Soviet Union continued to publish his books after they were released in Portuguese.

On April 6, 1961, Amado was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters. After his death, his wife was chosen to replace him. Amado wrote a novel, Pen, Sword, Camisole, that was set in the Academy. He received the title of Doctor honoris causa from universities in Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Israel, and France, as well as honors in many South American countries, including being named Obá de Xangô, a title in the Candomblé religion of Bahia.

Amado was removed from a French government blacklist in 1965 after the Minister of Culture, André Malraux, helped him. In 1984, he was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur by President François Mitterrand.

Amado’s books have been translated into 49 languages and published in 55 countries. They have been turned into films, plays, and TV shows. His work even inspired some samba schools in the Brazilian Carnival. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature seven times, in 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973.

In 1987, the House of Jorge Amado Foundation was created in Salvador. It works to protect Amado’s home and promote culture in Bahia. A museum in Salvador now displays international editions of his books.

In his later years, Amado had diabetes