Monteiro Lobato, Jose Bento

Monteiro Lobato, José Bento 

Born Apr. 18, 1883, in Taubate; died July 4, 1948, in Sao Paulo. Brazilian writer. Lawyer by education.

Monteiro Lobato’s short stories and journalistic sketches, for example, his collections Urupés (1918), Dead Cities (1919), and The Dark Woman (1920), are realistic depictions of the peasantry and are without romantic idealization. The artistic brilliance and authenticity of his stories contributed greatly to the formation of Brazilian national literature. From the 1920’s, Monteiro Lobato engaged in publishing and journalism, in which he called for an independent Brazilian economy and culture, as in his The Oil Scandal (1936). Monteiro Lobato also wrote books for children, in which he acquainted them, in an entertaining manner, with the basic sciences and with folklore.

WORKS

Obras completas, vols. 1–13. Sao Paulo, 1946–47.
In Russian translation: Skazki tetushki Nastas’i. Moscow, 1958.
“Chernusha “and “Mest’ peroby. “In Brazifskie rasskazy. Moscow, 1959.
Orden Zheltogo Diatla. Moscow, 1961.

REFERENCES

Terterian, LA . BraziVskii roman XX veka. Moscow, 1965.
Cavalheiro, E. Monteiro Lobato: Vida e obra, vols. 1–2, 2nd ed. Sao Paulo [1956].

I. E. TERTERIAN