A PHILOLOGICAL NOTE ON ARCHIVAL DISPERSION OF LIMANA, BY LIMA BARRETO

Abstract

During his lifetime, Lima Barreto faced several obstacles to publishing his works and texts in more specialized periodicals or widely circulated newspapers. He was critical of many editors and typographers, who annoyed him greatly when they pointed out errors that were, in reality, *handwriting misunderstandings*. After his death, his library was dispersed, but years later, it was recovered by his first biographer, who, together with other intellectuals of the word, helped recomposing the circulation of Lima Barreto. In this article, we discuss how the archival dispersion of black authors makes primary sources research urgent for the construction of arguments that amplify the editorial and critical fortune. We used, as a paradigmatic case, the manuscripts preserved in the National Library, Manuscripts section, specifically the Lima Barreto Collection; the edition of the author's Intimate Diary; and, finally, the facsimile of the Inventory also present in the Collection mentioned above. We invested in a philological reading that sought to compare the manuscripts and the printed material in order to understand the editorial policy adopted since the Diary's first edition. Thus, we were able to realize that the Diary is an editorial composition traced from indices left by the author but, above all, assumed by the editors who created a chronologically established textual series to give coherence to roles that the author himself did not regard as within a textual string.