Journalist, author Ruy Castro new member of Brazil Academy of Letters

The Brazilian Academy of Letters elected journalist and author Ruy Castro as the new occupant of Chair 13 of its board of effective members. Thirty-five members cast a ballot, either in person or by mail, as part of a session held at the Petit Trianon building, in downtown Rio de Janeiro, this Thursday (Oct 6). Castro garnered 32 votes.

Ruy Castro started his professional career as a reporter at Rio’s Correio da Manhã in 1967, and worked in all major media outlets in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. From 1990 on, he shifted his focus onto books. He is the author of the biographies of Carmen Miranda and Garrincha and historical reconstitution works about music genres samba-canção and bossa nova, as well as the Rio neighborhoods of Ipanema and Flamengo. In 2022, he received the Machado de Assis award from the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Chair 13

The seat had been vacant since academic Sergio Paulo Rouanet passed away in Rio de Janeiro on July 3 this year, at the age of 88, from advanced Parkinson’s syndrome. Rouanet was responsible for the creation of the Brazilian law of fiscal incentives to culture, dubbed Rouanet Law.

Rouanet was the eighth occupant of Chair 13, elected on April 23, 1992, to succeed Francisco de Assis Barbosa, and had been received on September 11, 1992, by academic Antonio Houaiss. He was among Brazil’s top intellectuals and stood out in his public career as consul in Germany and, as minister of Culture, for the creation of the law named after him.

Previous occupants of Chair 13 were Francisco de Assis Barbosa, Augusto Meyer, Hélio Lobo, Sousa Bandeira, Martins Júnior, Francisco de Castro, Visconde de Taunay, and Francisco Otaviano.