Portuguese Brazil

 

Otto Frank TLS in English to Livros do Brazil – Portuguese Edition of Anne Frank’s Diary

Date: November 3, 1979

Location: Birsfelden, Switzerland

Medium: Typed letter signed with related publishing documents

Collection: Yavneh Klos Collection, Anne Frank Archive 

In this letter, Otto Frank—Anne’s father and the sole surviving member of the Frank family—thanks publisher António de Souza-Pinto of Livros de Brasil for the Portuguese edition of the diary. Accompanied by receipts and payment records, the correspondence reflects Otto’s steadfast stewardship of Anne’s legacy and the careful expansion of her reach into new languages, countries, and hearts.

 

Anne Frank Portuguese Publishing Records

   

Date: October–November 1979

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Medium: Publisher’s receipts, postal slip, and account statement

Collection: Yavneh Klos Collection, Anne Frank Archive 

This trio of documents records the international licensing and payment for the Portuguese edition of Anne Frank’s diary. Behind each line item lies a determined effort to share Anne’s story with new readers—proof that even decades later, her words continued to cross borders, inspire publishers, and deepen public understanding of the Holocaust.

Receipts for Portuguese Edition of Anne Frank’s Diary

By Maria Eduarda Leite.

This is a typed letter from the Anne Frank Fonds, the Swiss group responsible for looking after Anne Frank's legacy, to Livros do Brasil, a publishing firm. The document includes a letter accepting the printing of 1,000 copies of The Diary of Anne Frank in Portuguese and a financial statement of a balance of $14,000 (R$78,799, $1=R$5.62). It also confirms that the payment was made to the Swiss Banking Corporation.

This is a landmark letter in the sense that it documents the worldwide spread of Anne Frank's diary, a most important first-hand account of the Holocaust. The father of Anne Frank as well as the editor of her diary, Otto Frank was the force behind bringing his daughter’s writing to the world at large. This letter also provides background on the careful process of securing foreign rights of publication and financial arrangements in publishing the diary to Brazilian readers.

Besides its content of logistics, the letter testifies to the eternity of the diary. First published in Dutch in 1947, The Diary of Anne Frank was subsequently translated into numerous languages and started introducing Anne's voice to many cultures and generations. The letter at hand testifies to the propagation of her narrative to Brazil, hence one of the greatest literary and historical pieces of the time.

Being a part of publishing history, the document presents an overview of the financial and administrative effort that went into making The Diary of Anne Frank a globally acclaimed book.