Erico Verissimo

Who was Erico Verissimo?

Erico Verissimo was an important Brazilian writer, born in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. His father, Sebastião Veríssimo da Fonseca, heir of a rich family in Cruz Alta, Rio Grande do Sul, met financial ruin during his son's youth. Veríssimo worked in a pharmacy before obtaining a job at Editora Globo, a book publisher, where he translated and released works of writers like Aldous Huxley. During the Second World War, he went to the United States. This period of his life was recorded in some of his books, including: Gato Preto em Campo de Neve, A Volta do Gato Preto, and História da Literatura Brasileira, which contains some of his lectures at UCLA. His epic O Tempo e o Vento became one of the great masterpieces of the Brazilian novel, alongside Os Sertões by Euclides da Cunha, and Grande Sertão: Veredas by Guimarães Rosa.

Four of Veríssimo's works, Time and the Wind, Night, Mexico, and His Excellency, the Ambassador, were translated into the English language by Linton Lomas Barrett.

He was the father of another famous writer of Rio Grande do Sul, Luis Fernando Veríssimo.