Lygia Fagundes da Silva Telles (born Lygia de Azevedo Fagundes; Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈliʒiɐ faˈɡũdʒis ˈtɛlis]; April 19, 1918 – April 3, 2022) was a Brazilian novelist and writer. She was known as "the lady of Brazilian literature" and "the greatest Brazilian writer" during her lifetime. Many experts, critics, and readers believe she was one of the most important Brazilian writers in the 20th century and in the history of Brazilian literature. In addition to being a lawyer, Lygia’s work was connected to postmodernism, and her stories explored themes such as death, love, fear, madness, and fantasy.

She was born in São Paulo and studied to become a lawyer. She began writing shortly after finishing high school and worked as both a lawyer and a writer for most of her career. In 1985, she became the third woman elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters and held Chair 16. She received the Camões Prize, which is the highest literary award for the Portuguese language. Her works have been honored by Brazil, Chile, and France. She won all major literary awards in Brazil and was recognized nationally and internationally. In 2016, at the age of 98, she became the first Brazilian woman to be nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Early life

Lygia Fagundes was born on April 19, 1918, in São Paulo, Brazil, to Maria do Rosário da Silva Jardim de Moura and Durval de Azevedo Fagundes. Her father worked as a lawyer and public official, holding roles such as a district attorney, police commissioner, and judge. Her mother, known as Zazita, was a pianist. Because of her father’s job, the family moved frequently within the state, living in cities including Apiaí, Assis, Itatinga, and Sertãozinho. At age eight, Fagundes moved with her mother to Rio de Janeiro, where they lived for five years. After returning to São Paulo, she attended Caetano de Campos School and graduated in 1937. Using money from her father, she published her first book, Porões e Sobrados (Grounds and Townhouses), a collection of short stories, in 1938.

In 1939, Fagundes earned her pre-law and physical education degrees from the University of São Paulo (USP). In 1941, she began studying law at USP (Portuguese: Faculdade de Direito do Largo de São Francisco), where she was one of only six women in a class of more than 100 men. At the same time, she worked for the government with the Secretary of Agriculture and wrote her second book of short stories, Praia Viva (Living Beach), which she published in 1944. She graduated with her law degree in 1945 and married Goffredo Telles Jr., a professor of international law, in 1947. The couple had one child, Goffredo da Silva Telles Neto, in 1952.

Career

Telles continued working in government jobs and became a writer for a newspaper called A Manhã (The Morning), where she wrote a weekly article. In 1949, she won the Afonso Arinos award from the Brazilian Academy of Letters for her book O Cacto Vermelho (Red Cactus), which is a collection of short stories. One of her most famous books is Ciranda de Pedra (The Marble Dance), published in 1954 and reprinted in 1986. This book focuses on women’s lives and relationships. Telles believed this was the first work that showed her full growth as a writer, and she often said she was not happy with her earlier books. In 1958, she published Histórias do Desencontro (Uncontrollable Stories), which won an award from the National Book Institute. In 1960, she divorced, and the next year she began working as a legal assistant for the Institute of Providence in the State of São Paulo. She worked there and continued writing books until 1991. In 1962, she married Paulo Emílio Salles Gomes, a film critic and writer. At that time, Brazil did not legally recognize divorce, so their marriage was not accepted by society.

Telles kept writing in the following years. Some of her works include Verão no Aquário (Summer at the Aquarium, 1963), which won the Jabuti Prize in 1965; Capitu (1967, published 1993), a screenplay she co-wrote with her husband based on a story by Machado de Assis, which won the Candango Award for best screenplay in 1969; Antes do Baile Verde (Before the Green Ball, 1970), which won the Best Foreign Women Writers Grand Prix in Cannes, France, in 1969; As Meninas (The Girls, 1973; The Girl in the Photograph, 2012), which received several awards, including the Jabuti Prize, the Coelho Neto Prize from the Brazilian Academy of Letters, and the Best Fiction Award from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics; Seminário dos Ratos (Seminary of the Rats, 1977), which won the best short story award from the Pen Club of Brazil that same year; A Disciplina do Amor (The Discipline of Love, 1980), which earned her another Jabuti Prize and the São Paulo Association of Art Critics Award; and As Horas Nuas (Naked Hours, 1989), which won the "Book of the Year" award and the Prêmio Pedro Nava.

Telles’ most famous novel, As Meninas, tells the story of three young women in the early 1970s, a time in Brazil when the government, controlled by the military, limited freedom and silenced critics. She joined other intellectuals in 1977 to deliver the Manifesto dos Mil (Manifesto of the Thousand) to the government in Brasília. This protest was the largest gathering of intellectuals since the government began controlling the press in 1968. She led a group of writers and historians to present their petition to the Justice Minister, Armando Falcão. Later that year, her husband, Gomes, died. In 1985, Telles was chosen to hold Chair 16 at the Brazilian Academy of Letters, becoming the third woman ever to hold a chair at the Academy. After retiring from the Institute of Providence in 1991, she continued writing, including A Noite Escura e Mais Eu (The Dark Night and More Me, 1995), which won the Arthur Azevedo Prize from the National Library of Brazil; Oito contos de amor (Eight Tales of Love, 1996); Invenção e Memória (Invention and Memory, 2001), which earned her the Jabuti Prize, the Book of the Year honor, and the Grand Prize of the Best of 2000 from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics; Durante Aquele Estranho Chá (During the Strange Tea, 2002); Conspiração de Nuvens (Cloud Compromise, 2007), which won the São Paulo Association of Art Critics Prize; and Passaporte para a China (Passport to China, 2011).

In 1985, Telles was honored as a commander in the Order of Rio Branco by the Brazilian government. In 1998, she received the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in the grade of chevalier and was named a grand officer of the Gabriela Mistral Order of Educational and Cultural Merit from Chile. In 2005, she won the Camões Prize, the highest literary award for Portuguese-language works. As of 2013, she was one of four women in the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Her books have been translated into Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, and Swedish, and have been reprinted many times in Portuguese. She was nominated for the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature by the Brazilian Writers’ Union.

Death

Telles died on April 3, 2022, in São Paulo from natural causes at the age of 103. A public wake was held at the Academia Paulista de Letras, and her body was cremated the following day at Vila Alpina Cemetery in São Paulo. The governor of São Paulo, Rodrigo Garcia, declared three days of mourning in the state.