Euclides da Cunha

Euclides da Cunha was born in 1866 in the state of Rio de Janeiro; his mother died when he was three, and he was raised by relatives. He studied engineering at the military academy and was an ardent republican; when the Empire's Minister of War visited the school he threw his sword to the ground in protest before everyone and was expelled. After the Republic was proclaimed he returned to the army, later leaving it to work as an engineer building bridges and roads. In 1897 the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo sent him as a war correspondent to the north-eastern backlands to report on the government's campaign against Canudos. He witnessed that terrible war at first hand, and over the next five years, while building a bridge in a remote small town, he wrote Os Sertões. The book caused a sensation across the country and won him election to the Brazilian Academy of Letters. His end was tragic: at forty-three he was shot dead in a family quarrel.