An intellectual face-off in the land of soccer

He may have sold 37 million books and been given audiences by the pope and Bill Clinton, but Brazilian author Paulo Coelho has never won the respect of his peers. Now, he is asking his country's intellectual elites for acceptance.

Mr. Coelho, the New Age writer who won phenomenal success with his novel, "The Alchemist," is running for election to the Brazilian Academy of Letters, the 40-chair exclusive club of literary and intellectual greats. Chairs on the academy become vacant with the passing of a member.

Wednesday's election is the battle of two opposites: the outsider Coelho against the establishment's Helio Jaguaribe, a social scientist and political intellectual who taught at Harvard University and counts Brazil's president among his best friends.

In a nation where soccer and suntans have always played a more prominent role than literature, this literary face-off opens an unusual window on Brazilian society and the tremendous degree of respect given to academy members. In spite of statistics that show Brazilians have far fewer libraries than neighbors such as Argentina, and buy one-third of the number of books bought in France, the election is a hotly anticipated event.

Membership of the academy confers instant celebrity status, with academicians appearing on television chat shows and in magazines such as People. Even those Brazilians who have never read a book in their lives know and respect those deemed to be "immortal."

"Someone who is elected becomes known across the country," says Ivan Junqueira, a poet and translator, and the academy's secretary general. "People point to you and say, 'He is immortal.' I took a taxi to come [to the academy] once, and I got talking with the taxi driver about the academy, and when he found out I was a member he refused to take my money. There is a magic to the academy."

The election is also about whether an institution that prizes intellectuals, diplomats, and politicians as much as novelists (anyone who has published a book is eligible) is ready to embrace Coelho, an author many in the academy see as inferior.

"This election is very important because we are dealing with two very different candidates," says Mr. Junqueira. "Jaguaribe is one of the foremost intellectuals in the country. Paulo Coelho has sold [millions of books]. We have to choose between a political thinker and a professional writer. The challenge for the academy is the following: Can we continue to ignore one of the best-known writers in the world."

A former hippy, journalist, and theater director who penned lyrics for some of Brazil's best-known singers, Coelho is different from the typical academician, many of whom are septuagenarians.

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