Maria José Dupré

Maria José Dupré, also known as Sra. Leandro Dupré, was one of the most popular and prolific Brazilian writers of the 1940s and 1950s.

Early life Born in 1905 in a small town in the state of São Paulo, Dupré published her first story "Uma Família Antiga de Jaboticabal" ("An Old Family from Jaboticabal") in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo in 1978.

Novels Dupré published her first novel, O Romance de Teresa Bernard ("The Romance of Teresa Bernard"), in 1941. Her next novel, Éramos Seis, was written in 1943 and praised by writer and critic Monteiro Lobato and became a best-seller. Chronicling the struggles of a middle-class family in São Paulo, the novel was awarded the Raul Pompeia Prize for best work of 1943 by the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Dupré wrote Luz e Sombra ("Light and Dark") in 1944, Gina in 1945, and Os Rodriguez ("The Rodriguezes") in 1946. She published a sequel to Éramos Seis called Dona Lola in 1949.

Impact Éramos Seis has been adapted as a telenovela five times, in 1958, 1967, 1977, 1994 and 2019.

Later life Dupré died on 15 May 1984 in Guarujá, São Paulo, Brazil.