erico Verissimo

Érico Verissimo was a Brazilian writer who is considered one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century. He wrote novels, short stories, essays, and journalism, exploring themes of identity, language, time, and solitude. He was born to a wealthy family in Cruz Alta, Rio Grande do Sul, in 1905, and moved to Porto Alegre in 1930, where he started his literary career. He published his first work, Fantoches, in 1932, with a sequence of short stories, mostly in the form of short plays. The following year, he saw his first great success with the novel Clarissa. He married Mafalda Halfen Volpe in 1931 and had one son, Luis Fernando, who also became a writer. He worked as an editor and director of the publishing house Editora Globo, where he promoted Brazilian literature and culture. He also taught Brazilian literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and was the director of the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. He wrote several books on Brazilian history and culture, such as História da Literatura Brasileira and Brasil: Terra e Povo. He is best known for his epic trilogy O Tempo e o Vento, which spans two centuries of the history of Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil, through the lives of several generations of a family. He also wrote other acclaimed novels, such as Olhai os Lírios do Campo, O Resto é Silêncio, and O Senhor Embaixador. He died of heart failure in 1975, at the age of 69. He is widely regarded as a master of the Portuguese language and a pioneer of modernist literature in Brazil.