Latin America: Passionate Publisher

Columbia University last week gave a Maria Moors Cabot Gold Medal for hemisphere service to Brazil’s most potent publisher, small, dynamic, tack-sharp Dr. Francisco de Assis Chateaubriand.

Hard work, slick financing, fast talk, and a driving energy that permitted only parlor-car relaxation on his cross-country travels raised Chateaubriand from a law professorship at Recife to the most comprehensive press lordship south of San Simeon. He owns 28 newspapers, 16 radio stations, five magazines and a press service. The most spectacular of his promotions, a campaign for Brazil’s amateur Aero Clubs, paid off when Aero Clubs’ Sunday fliers started pouring into the war-activated Brazilian Air Force.

A fiery temper has occasionally impelled Chateaubriand to language that no family journalist should use. Just after one of his papers had guttersniped a dashing engineer named Clito Bockel, Chateaubriand found himself toasting an air force officer at an Aero Club plane christening. The officer responded, “I am Clito Bockel’s brother,” and knocked the publisher down. Livid with passion, Chateaubriand drew his pistol and, with indifferent aim grazed Bockel’s cheek, shot his chief editorial writer in the jaw.