Near-Fine in a Very Good,mylar protected dust jacket with light edgewear that includes chipping. Octavo, black cloth (hardcover), gilt letters and decoration to spine, decoration blind-stamped to upper cover, uncut, lxxi pp, 537 pp, xliv pp. He was gracious, as always.New York: Alfred A. I last met him and his wife in a modest restaurant in Rio. It was the essential pilgrimage for a young Brazilianist. We maintained our well-lubricated discussion late into the evening. We were then to get the standard treatment of being served a succession of exotic (and quite potent) after-dinner drinks, concocted by the Master himself. Since I had read accounts of other faces who had visited the spot, I knew the protocol.Īfter we were introduced to his (somewhat younger) wife, Freyre broke out a set of rather elegant liquor glasses. Upon arrival Chico informed me that it was de rigueur to make an appointment with the “sage of Apipicos,” the site of Freyre’s impressive residence near the state capitol of Recife. My next encounter with Freyre was in Brazil when I traveled to the Northeast with my friend Chico Barbosa. But after my embarrassed introduction, he gave an excellent lecture in English (in his defense he was gracious to me). We had to retire to the dining room of an undergraduate residency. Perhaps because of my lowly academic status I bungled the effort to book a large enough auditorium for him. He was passing through New England when I was low on the faculty ladder at Harvard. The first time I met him was late in his career and early in mine. His only comment on my writing was once, in a newspaper interview, to refer to me-and my work as that of-a “mediocre sociologist.” Wrong discipline, but I appreciated the publicity. I, along with other readers, have spent many hours studying his work. His interpretation proved highly controversial in Brazil and elsewhere. Subsequent volumes brought them into subsequent decades. It introduced generations of Brazilians to their colonial past. Casa grande e senzala (1933) was an instant classic. He was a historian whose books had a worldwide readership.
One of the first names I learned when I entered Brazilian history.
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