Para viver um grande amor
Vinicius de Moraes
Editora do Autor, 1962
The first of two books considered part of his prose work (the second is "Para uma girl com uma flor", from 1966), "Para viver um grande amor" is a collection of chronicles written by the author in Rio newspapers in the 1950s , mainly those published in the newspaper "A Última Hora", from 1959 onwards. In addition to the chronicles, Vinicius presents poems written during his stays at the embassies in Paris and Montevideo. Editora do Autor was the publishing house founded by his close friends Rubem Braga and Fernando Sabino. It is a book about love, published under more than emotional conditions for the author.
Thus, the book becomes a hybrid literary space, in which prose and poetry intertwine, creating a complete feeling around the theme that the writer presents in the title. According to Vinicius himself in his "warning" in the first edition, the publication of poems in a book of prose is to give "a new balance" to his texts. The poet cannot see his writing, even without verses, outside the poetic universe. And rightly so, since his chronicles are nothing like the lyrical strength of his poems. It is worth noting that the book was only possible, according to the author himself, thanks to the help of his secretary Yvonne Barbare. She was the one who helped in the selection of the chronicles published among more than a thousand written by him in the period from 1959 to 1962. A privileged collaborator, who helped in the creation of this true classic of Brazilian literature, a level that the book reached even in its own time.
