Editorial data

Terra Roxa e Outras Terras, São Paulo’s second modernist publication, was a fortnightly periodical published in 1926, with a total of seven issues. Although it was the second paulistana modernist magazine, after Klaxon, from 1922, it was the fourth in the country, after Rio de Janeiro’s Estética, from 1924 to 1925, and Minas Gerais’ A Revista, from 1925.

Even though Modernism studies refer to it as a magazine, Terra Roxa regularly presented itself as a “small literary newspaper”, with no cover, each issue comprising four pages. Only two issues were exceptions, coming in at 6 pages: the first, from January 20, 1926, Wednesday, perhaps because of the need to bolster the campaign for purchasing a letter by Anchieta from 15 November 1579, advertised in the Maggs Bros Bookstore, in London, for a cost of 200 pounds, the equivalent to thirty sacks of coffee; the second was issue 5, of April 27, 1926, Tuesday, and was probably due to celebrate the success which had been promised, the delivery of Anchieta's letter to the Museu Paulista. The remaining issues followed the four-page format until the end, on September 17, 1926.

All issues carried the description “fortnightly publication”, but this was not always achieved. The first four months maintained the periodicity, but from then on the interval began to extend, leading to a delay of more than two months for the seventh and final issue.

As for the header, the uppercase title appears in the centre, with “e outras terras” below, in smaller font. Also in the header, on the left we find:

Periodicity: Fortnightly

Editing and administration: Av. São João 96 (4th floor)

The right side reads:

Yearly subscriptions: Brazil – 12$000; Foreign countries – 16$000; Single issue – $500

Below, taking up the full live area, are the names of those responsible:

Directors: A. C. Couto de Barros and Antonio Alcântara Machado

Secretary and administrator: Sérgio Milliet

Although Paulo Prado’s name is not included in the editorial data, it is well-known that the São Paulo farmer, a scholar of the history of the State, was the mainstay of the publication, both for his economic contributions and signed sections.

The print locations and information are next, on a single line:

Composed in Linotype Mergenthaler machines and printed in “Typ. Paulista” of José Napoli and Cia. Rua da Assembleia, 56-58 – São Paulo – Central Tel. 2192 [the same workshop that produced Klaxon].

The list of collaborators, in alphabetical order, is as follows: Affonso D’E. Taunay, Antonio Carlos Couto de Barros, Antonio de Alcântara Machado, Blaise Cendrars, Candido Motta Filho, Carlos Alberto de Araújo (pseudonym of Tácito de Andrade de Almeida), Carlos Drummond (de Andrade), Clodomiro Santarém, Guilherme de Almeida, João Alphonsus, Jorge Fernandes, Luis da Câmara Cascudo, Luiza Guerreiro, Manuel Bandeira, Mário de Andrade, Martins de Almeida, Oswald de Andrade, Oswaldo Costa, Paulo Prado, Prudente de Moraes, neto, René Thiollier, Ribeiro Couto, Ronald de Carvalho, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Sérgio Milliet, Teobaldo Fagundes Vieira. The following pseudonyms and initials can also be found: A. de A., A. de C., Pau D’Alho (Mário de Andrade), Teillin (Sérgio Milliet).

Despite this plethora of collaborators, Terra Roxa does not seek to host debates and polemics, but among its diverse sections and varied contributors, it sometimes slips into acerbic and fierce criticism. With a broad thematic spectrum, it maintains, without strict rigour, a few recurrent sections: Poetry, Painting, Music, Sports, Theatre, Novel.

The fully black and white layout does not follow a standard model, resulting in a disorganized treatment of sections and articles, many of them interrupted and continued in the final pages.

Advertisements are limited to announcements of the newspaper's own subscription and notices of recently released modernist literary works, such as Losango Cáqui, by Mário de Andrade, and the poem Raça, by Guilherme de Almeida, both in issue 1; Toda a América, by Ronald de Carvalho, and Pathé-Baby, by Antonio de Alcântara Machado, in issue 3. Issues 4 and 5 are the exception, with Ajax car advertisements.