Graciliano Ramos

Graciliano Ramos was a Brazilian writer, journalist and editor. He was born in Quebrangulo, Alagoas, in 1892, and moved to Palmeira dos Índios in 1915, where he worked as a teacher, accountant and mayor. He published his first book, Caetés, in 1933, and became one of the most influential writers of the 1930s modernist movement. He wrote novels, short stories, essays, and memoirs, exploring themes of social injustice, regionalism, and psychological realism. He is best known for his novels Vidas Secas, São Bernardo, and Angústia, which portray the harsh realities of the Brazilian sertão and the urban middle class. He was also a political activist and a member of the Brazilian Communist Party, which led to his arrest and imprisonment in 1936, during the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas. He wrote about his experience in the prison diary Memórias do Cárcere, which was published posthumously. He died of lung cancer in 1953, at the age of 60. He is widely regarded as a master of the Portuguese language and a pioneer of modernist literature in Brazil.