Maria José Dupré

Maria José Dupré, also known as '''Sra. Leandro Dupré''' (1905 – 15 May 1984 ), 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.