Religion and poetry in the unpublished letters of Murilo Murilo to Alceu Moroso Lima (1958-1974)

Abstract

In the poet’s collection at the Murilo Mendes Museum, at he Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), 50 unpublished documents are preserved, including 39 letters, 3 telegrams, 4 notes, 3 postcards and 1 text written by Murilo Mendes (1901- 1975) to Alceu Amoroso Lima (1893-1983), between 1930 and 1974. From Alceu to Murilo there are only two letters preserved, according to information from Leandro Garcia Rodrigues (2023). Due to the extent and richness of the material present in the letters, it was considered necessary to divide the work into two stages. This essay aims to cover the 11 missives sent by Murilo Mendes to Alceu Amoroso Lima, between 1958 and 1974 – the period preceding the transfer, in 1957, to Italy, of the poet and his wife, Maria da Saudade Cortesão Mendes (1913-2010) -, when analyzing the relationship between poetry and religion in the work of Murilo Mendes.