by Euclides da Cunha

Euclides da Cunha was born in 1866 in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. Having lost his mother when he was three, he was raised by relatives and in boarding schools. He completed high school at the Colégio Aquino in Rio de Janeiro and entered the Polytechnic School and later the Military School, where he was trained as a military engineer. From 1893 on da Cunha was engaged in building trenches, sanitary works, bridges, and barracks. In fact, he wrote Rebellion in the Backlands while directing work on a bridge in the state of São Paulo. Simultaneously, he worked as a reporter, which led to his visiting the Canudos front in this capacity. The success of Os Sertões in 1902 caused da Cunha’s election to the Brazilian Academy of Letters, and he followed it with other...