José Lins do Rego

José Lins do Rego lived his early years in a sugar cane farm owned by his family. This background was the strongest pillar of his work. He was born on the 3rd June 1901 in Pilar, a small city in Paraíba, northeastern state of Brazil. He studied in Pilar, Itabaiana, João Pessoa and then Recife, where he first got in touch with literature in 1916, when he read "O Ateneu", by Raul Pompéia. He graduated as a lawyer in 1918. In Recife he met intellectuals like Gilberto Freyre, José Americo de Almeida, Luis Delgado, Aníbal Fernandes, Osório Borba, and Olívio Montenegro. He worked as a prosecutor in Minas Gerais where he got married in 1924. Later and moved to Maceió where he contacts with literature got bigger once he met, among others, Graciliano Ramos, Raquel de Queiroz and Aurélio Buarque de Holanda. He wrote his first book, "Menino de Engenho" in 1932. More than 20 other novels would come up later, including "Doidinho" (1933), "Bangue" (1934), "Moleque Ricardo" (1935), "Riacho Doce" (1939) and "Fogo Morto" (1943). Each of his books was about one aspect of his childhood on the farm.