This article presents results of studies and researches focused in the Prize Francisco Alves, instituted by Academia Brasileira de Letras under the name The best way to disseminate primary education in Brazil, besides it addresses the origin and trajectory of the prize. The basic research found, recovered, and analyzed several articles and notes published in Revista da Academia Brasileira de Letras and, posteriorly, different prizewinning monographs, of several expressive intellectuals: Marques Pinheiro, Jorge Augusto Büchler, Pedro Deodato de Moraes, Achilles Lisboa, Manoel Bomfim, and Sud Mennucci. It concludes that, during its terms, the prize Francisco Alves worked as a quinquennial call for the intellectuals willing to think and know the possibilities of another future for Brazil, via dissemination of popular instruction.
Prize Francisco Alves; Brazilian Academy of Letters; elementary school; popular instruction