Richard and Sandra Lauderdale Graham Brazilian Chapbook and Slides Collection

The inexpensively printed booklets or pamphlets known as cordel literature (from the Portuguese term literatura de cordel, literally “string literature”) originated in rural northeastern Brazil as humble poets and artists used this means to reach a popular audience. Containing folk novels, poems, and songs illustrated initially with woodblock prints and later with photo images, these booklets were sold at fairs and by street vendors. Production of the booklets reached a peak in the 1920’s and 1930’s, but the present collection makes clear that they were still being created in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Many of the booklets are by unknown authors, but names identifying the writers of others include Jose Soares da Silva, Marcelo Soares, Davi Teixeira, Maca Moreco, and Altair Leal. Artists of the illustrations are likewise not always identified, but the woodblock prints of at least Jose Francisco Borges are accompanied by his name. Borges’ work has been exhibited in the Louvre and the Smithsonian.