BOOKS BY ISAAC GOLDBERG
BRAZILIAN
LITERATURE
ISAAC GOLDBERG, Ph.D.
WITH A FOREWORD BY
J. D. M. FORD
Smith Professor of the French and Spanish Languages, Harvard University
NEW YORK ALFRED · A · KNOPF MCMXXII
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
ALFRED A. KNOPF, Inc.
Published, September, 1922
Set up and printed by the Veil-Bellou Co., Binghamton, N. Y.
Paper supplied by W. F. Etherington & Co., New York, N. Y.
Bound by the H. Wolf Estate, New York, N. Y.
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
BURTON KLINE
of the Philadelphia Public Ledger
Dear Burton:
You were, some eight years ago, myguide into the thorny mazes of Journalism,and printed, in the Boston Evening Transcript,my first articles upon Spanish andPortuguese American letters. This is buta small return for the friendship since thenestablished.
I. G.
Brazil is preparing to commemorate worthily the centenaryof her independence. The world outside is biddento the feast, and to beautiful Rio de Janeiro manynations are sending their envoys with felicitations andgifts. Our own country, the United States of NorthAmerica, is mindful of her duty and her privilege onthis occasion, and accredited delegates are bearing hercongratulations to her ever-faithful associate in the promotingof peace and fraternity throughout the WesternHemisphere. Perhaps it will not be taken amiss, if thescholar and critic add his testimonial to the expressionsof good-will coming from all sides. What more fittingthan that a scholar and critic of our United Statesshould join the chorus and voice an honest appreciationof Brazilian letters?
Dr. Goldberg, who has already paid ample tribute tothe literary output of Spanish-speaking America, givesproof now of the catholicity of his interest by surveyingthe whole course of literature in Portuguese-speakingAmerica, the vast land of Brazil, and by analyzing thecompositions of certain outstanding figures among thewriters of the region. He knows at first hand the authorsand the works that he treats; he knows what nativeand foreign critics have to say about them; he expressesunreservedly his own opinion about them. Hegives praise where praise is due, and, in kindly fashion,he puts stricture upon that which calls for stricture.On the whole, his pages contain more laudation than[viii]censure; and this is as it should be, for very many of theliterary achievements of colonial, imperial and republicanBrazil are unquestionably of lasting worth. His laudation,moreover, is uttered without any tinge of