Snu Abecassis
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Short description|Danish-Portuguese publisher (1940-1980)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Snu Abecassis
| image = Snu Abecassis.jpg
| landscape = yes
| caption =
| birth_name = Ebba Merete Seidenfaden
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1940|10|07|df=y}}
| birth_place = Copenhagen, Denmark
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1980|12|04|1940|10|07|df=y}}
| death_place = Camarate, Lisbon District, Portugal
| citizenship = {{hlist|Denmark|Portugal}}
| occupation = Publisher
| employer = {{ill|v=ib|Publicações Dom Quixote|pt}}
| spouse = {{marriage|Alberto Vasco Abecassis|1961||end=div}}
| partner = Francisco Sá Carneiro
| children = 3
| father = Erik Seidenfaden
}}
Ebba Merete "Snu" Abecassis (born Ebba Merete Seidenfaden; 7 October 1940 – 4 December 1980) was a Danish-Portuguese publisher, who founded {{ill|Publicações Dom Quixote|pt}}, a publishing house that became famous for publishing left-wing works, associated with ideas contrary to the dictatorship of the Estado Novo.
Biography
Daughter of the Danish journalists Erik Seidenfaden and {{ill|Jytte Kaastrup-Olsen|sv|Jytte Bonnier}}, Ebbe Merete was born in Copenhagen on 7 October 1940. As a child she was given the nickname Snu, which means "smart" in the Danish language.{{Cite web |last=Reinholdt |first=Merete |date=18 January 2013 |title=Hvem var Snu? |url=https://www.berlingske.dk/content/item/454736 |access-date=23 September 2023 |website=Berlingske.dk |language=da}}
In 1961, she married Alberto Vasco Abecassis. She moved to Portugal after a year and the couple's three children were born there.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gB_kAAAAMAAJ&q=snu+abecassis |title=The New Yorker |date=1982 |publisher=F-R Publishing Corporation |pages=79 |language=en}} In 1965, under her direction, the publishing house {{ill|Publicações Dom Quixote|pt}} was founded in Lisbon.{{Cite book |last=O'Neill |first=Lois Decker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FVEaAAAAYAAJ&q=snu+abecassis |title=The Women's Book of World Records and Achievements |date=1979 |publisher=Anchor Press/Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-12732-5 |pages=487 |language=en}} The company published both left-wing literary works and non-fiction, with a focus on those that were challenging to Portuguese political authority, or were as yet unpublished in Portuguese.{{Citation |last1=Garcia |first1=José Luís |title=Mapping cultural policy in Portugal: From incentives to crisis |date=21 May 2020 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429295539-2 |work=Cultural Policy in Ibero-America |pages=13–29 |access-date=23 September 2023 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-29553-9 |last2=Lopes |first2=João Teixeira |last3=Martinho |first3=Teresa Duarte |last4=Neves |first4=José Soares |last5=Gomes |first5=Rui Telmo |last6=Borges |first6=Vera|doi=10.4324/9780429295539-2 |hdl=10451/25038 |hdl-access=free }} It was the first to publish Pippi Longstocking and Alexander Solzhenitsyn in Portugal,{{Cite web |last=Gliemann |first=Morten |date=9 December 2010 |title=Den danske førstedame i Portugal |url=https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/udland/den-danske-f%C3%B8rstedame-i-portugal |access-date=20 September 2023 |website=Kristeligt Dagblad |language=da}} as well as the first to publish The Two Cultures by C P Snow.{{Cite journal |last=Fiolhais |first=Carlos |date=18 June 2016 |title="Estranhas mas irmãs": revisitando a questão das duas culturas |journal=Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais |volume=3 |issue=2 |doi=10.21814/rlec.119 |s2cid=164139937 |issn=2183-0886|doi-access=free |hdl=10316/40629 |hdl-access=free }}
Francisco Sá Carneiro was a Portuguese politician with whom Abecassis had an affair. She divorced her husband, but Sá Carneiro was unable to obtain a divorce from his wife. Despite this, they began to live together and also died together on 4 December 1980, in the Camarate air crash, which, in addition to Snu and Sá Carneiro, killed Adelino Amaro da Costa. The three were heading to a rally for the end of António Soares Carneiro's presidential campaign.{{Cite web |date=29 December 2019 |title=A snumania contada por quem conheceu a paixão nórdica de Sá Carneiro |url=https://www.dn.pt/edicao-do-dia/30-dez-2019/a-snumania-contada-por-quem-conheceu-a-paixao-nordica-de-sa-carneiro-11659859.html |access-date=20 September 2023 |website=www.dn.pt |language=pt-PT}} It has been speculated that the crash was the result of an assassination attempt, but no group was prosecuted.{{Cite book |last=Todd |first=Cliff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xUUDEAAAQBAJ&dq=snu+abecassis&pg=PT117 |title=Explosive: Bringing the World's Deadliest Bombers to Justice |date=26 May 2022 |publisher=Headline |isbn=978-1-4722-7897-5 |language=en}}
Cultural legacy
The film SNU was released in 2019, directed by Patrícia Sequeira; it was the second most popular national release of the year.{{Cite book |last=Liddy |first=Susan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rkz2DwAAQBAJ&dq=snu+abecassis&pg=PA214 |title=Women in the International Film Industry: Policy, Practice and Power |date=8 August 2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-39070-9 |pages=214 |language=en}} Abecassis also featured in the series, {{ill|3 Mulheres|pt|3 Mulheres (série de televisão)}}, first aired on 26 October 2018, which told the story of her life alongside that of Maria Armanda Falcão and Natália Correia.{{Cite web |last=s.r.o |first=RECO |title=Snu Abecassis, Natália Correia e Maria Armanda Falcão, três mulheres no tempo dos homens |url=https://www.vogue.pt/3-mulheres |access-date=20 September 2023 |website=www.vogue.pt |language=pt}}
In 2011 {{ill|Cândida Pinto|pt}} published a biography titled Snu, which was translated into Danish in 2013.{{Cite web |date=23 May 2011 |title=Caras {{!}} Cândida Pinto escreve livro sobre Snu Abecassis e Sá Carneiro |url=https://caras.pt/famosos/2011-05-23-candida-pinto-escreve-livro-sobre-snu-abecassis-e-sa-carneiro/ |access-date=23 September 2023 |website=Caras |language=pt-PT}}{{Cite web |last=Lusa |date=21 March 2013 |title=Camarate: PS diz que não há nexo de causalidade entre tráfico de armas e queda do avião |url=https://www.publico.pt/2013/03/21/politica/noticia/camarate-ps-diz-que-nao-ha-nexo-de-causalidade-entre-trafico-de-armas-e-queda-do-aviao-1588547 |access-date=23 September 2023 |website=PÚBLICO |language=pt}} In 2010, the final minute of Abecassis' life was the subject of a play, which premiered at the Casafez theatre in Lisbon. Published in 2003, Abecassis' mother wrote a biography of her daughter six years after her death.{{Cite web |last=Salema |first=Isabel |date=28 January 2003 |title=Biografia de Snu Abecassis editada pela primeira vez em Portugal |url=https://www.publico.pt/2003/01/28/jornal/biografia-de-snu-abecassis-editada-pela-primeira-vez-em-portugal-197642 |access-date=20 September 2023 |website=PÚBLICO |language=pt}}
Elizabeth Hera Garton hybridised an orchid and named it Snu after Abecassis.{{Cite web |date=22 August 2019 |title=Morreu a mulher que deu o nome de uma orquídea a Snu Abecassis |url=https://funchalnoticias.net/2019/08/22/morreu-a-mulher-que-deu-o-nome-de-uma-orquidea-a-snu-abecassis/ |access-date=20 September 2023 |website=Funchal Notícias |language=pt}}
References
External links
- [https://arquivos.rtp.pt/conteudos/funeral-de-snu-abecassis/ Funeral de Snu Abecassis]
- [https://santaritafilmes.pt/en/portfolio-item/snu/ SNU (film)]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abecassis, Snu}}
Category:20th-century Portuguese women
Category:20th-century Portuguese businesspeople
Category:Portuguese publishers (people)
Category:Businesspeople from Copenhagen
Category:Immigrants to Portugal
Category:Portuguese people of Danish descent
Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1980
Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Portugal