Monteiro, Jerônymo
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Editor.
(1908-1970) Brazilian author and editor who was in a certain sense the first sf fan in Brazil. He was hooked as a child through H G Wells's books, and in his first sf stories he used the pseudonym "Ronnie Wells". Under this name, he wrote the adventures of the hugely popular detective Dick Peter in a radio show which lasted several years from 1937 on. Later, Dick Peter's exploits were collected in book form; they are Pulpish tales aimed at teenagers, most of them crime thrillers set in New York, but some of them involve sf elements – high-tech Villains, survivors from Atlantis, Miniaturization, etc.
A typical sf aficionado, Monteiro worked as a newspaperman for most of his life. He founded the first sf association in Brazil, the Sociedade Brasileira de Ficção Científica ["Brazilian Society of Science Fiction"], together with Rubens Teixeira Scavone, Clóvis Garcia, André Carneiro and others. He edited the Magazine de Ficção Científica (1970-1971), the Brazilian version of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which besides translations also published stories by Brazilian authors (one per issue).
Monteiro's novels include Três meses no século 81 ["Three Months in the 81st Century"] (1947), a Time-Travel fantasy prompted by a discussion between the protagonist and H G Wells; A Cidade Perdida ["The Lost City"] (1948), a Lost-World tale set in the jungle of Central Brazil; Fuga para parte alguma ["Escape to Nowhere"] (1961), arguably his best book, a Disaster story influenced by Wells's "The Empire of the Ants" (December 1905 Strand); and Visitantes do espaço ["Visitors from Space"] (1963), in which Earth is invaded by Aliens from Jupiter's moon Io, and in the end a difficult peace is achieved.
Tangentes da realidade ["Tangents of Reality"] (coll 1969) gathers his most important short work, but there may be a number of stories scattered throughout the many newspapers and magazines where Monteiro earned his living. [BT]
Jerônymo Barbosa Monteiro
born São Paulo, Brazil: 8 December 1908
died 1 June 1970
works (selected)
- Três meses no século 81 ["Three Months in the 81st Century"] (Porto Alegre, Brazil: Livraria do Globo, 1947) [hb/João Mottini]
- A cidade perdida ["The Lost City"] (São Paulo, Brazil: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1948) [pb/]
- Fuga para parte alguma ["Escape to Nowhere"] (São Paulo, Brazil: GRD, 1961) [pb/Eddie Moyna]
- Os visitantes do espaço ["The Space Visitors"] (São Paulo, Brazil: Edart, 1963) [pb/Nelson Coletti]
- Tangentes da realidade ["Tangents of Reality"] (São Paulo, Brazil: Livraria Quatro Artes Editora, 1969) [coll: pb/Pavel Kudis]
- "The Crystal Goblet" in Cosmos Latinos: An Anthology of Science Fiction From Latin America and Spain (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2003) edited by Andrea Bell and Yolanda Molina-Gavilán [anth: with trans by Roberta Rezende and David Sunderland of "O copo de cristal" from the above collection: pb/Raúl Cruz]
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