Nelson Falcão Rodrigues (August 23, 1912 – December 21, 1980) was a Brazilian dramatist, journalist and writer.

Biography

Born in Recife, the capital of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, Rodrigues moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1916 when his father, Mário Rodrigues, purchased a house in Zona Norte, a lower middle class part of the city. Mário Rodrigues found work in the carioca newspaper Correio da Manhã.

In 1925 he started to work at A Manhã, a newspaper owned by his father. The following years were relatively happy for the Rodrigues family, until the murder of Roberto Rodrigues, Nelson's brother. After Roberto's death, Mário fell into a depression, passing away a few months later. In the Revolução de 30 the Rodrigues newspaper was destroyed by the revolutionary army.

In 1932 Rodrigues was hired by O Globo newspaper, but was diagnosed with tuberculosis a year later. His treatment was financed by Roberto Marinho, who also paid Rodrigues's salary during his time away at Campos do Jordão. Rodrigues was also famous for his articles about soccer and specifically Fluminense—the Rio de Janeiro soccer team that he supported. Beginning in 1940 Rodrigues divided his time between his job at O Globo and his personal work as dramatist. His first play debuted in 1941, A Mulher Sem Pecado (The Woman Without Sin). It was not well received by the critics, but his second play, Vestido de Noiva (Wedding Dress or Dress of a Bride) was an immediate success, and today is considered to be one of his masterpieces. By the 1940s he had invented a character, Suzana Flag, to write novels.

In all Rodrigues wrote seventeen full-length plays, and he is considered by many to be Brazil's most important playwright. In addition, he wrote hundreds of short stories during the 1950's in a column entitled A Vida Como Ela É (Life As It Is). The stories were published several times in the following decades and have been highly influential in Brazilian theater, television and cinema.

Works

Plays

Novels

Newspaper column collections