How does a child from Brazilian elites constructs, in his everyday life, ways to participate in written cultures? How was the formation of an "inheritor" in the beginning of the 20th century, regarding writing? To answer those kinds of question, this article analyses the literacy events narrated by the physician and writer from Minas Gerais, Pedro Nava (1903-1984), in his Memoir. This main source is analyzed using works of Cultural History, Sociology of Education, Literary Theory, and Discourse Analysis. A combination of history and literature, his Memoir is an important representation of his formation as a writer. The research showed that many of his reading and writing practices during childhood were mediated, in his family, by the voice of his relatives. Besides this, the learning of certain cultural tastes was related to his admiration for the values and ways of living of his family. Thus, in his process of formation and self-creation, he was choosing what to receive from his family. As an "inheritor" such learning is not presented as a personal effort, or as a continuous, long term investment of his family in his formation. The literate world reaches him as a common element, apparently natural and not as the result of his experiences in a favorable environment to the appropriation of legitimate culture preferences of his time.
written cultures; cultural heritage; reading; writing and orality; history of education