Coelho Neto | |
---|---|
Born | Henrique Maximiano Coelho Neto February 21, 1864 Caxias, Maranhão, Brazil |
Died | November 28, 1934 Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil |
(aged 70)
Occupation | Playwright, short story writer, novelist, politician |
Nationality | Brazilian |
Ethnicity | Mestizo |
Alma mater | University of São Paulo |
Spouse | Maria Gabriela Brandão |
Children | João Coelho Neto |
Henrique Maximiano Coelho Neto (February 21, 1864 – November 28, 1934) was a Brazilian writer and politician. He founded and occupied the second chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, from 1897 until his death in 1934. He was also the president of the aforementioned Academy in 1926.
Coelho Neto was born in the city of Caxias, Maranhão, on February 21, 1864. His father was Portuguese, but his mother was an indigenous woman, Ana Silvestre Coelho. At six years of age, his parents moved to Rio de Janeiro. He began his education at the Externato of the Colegio Pedro II. He attempted medical school but soon gave up. In 1883 he enrolled at the University of São Paulo School of Law, living in the boarding house where also lived Raul Pompeia, who attended the Academy of São Paulo at that time. He soon found himself involved in a student movement against a professor. In anticipation of reprisals, he moved to the Law Faculty of Recife, where he completed the first year of law, having been a student of the jurist and poet Tobias Barreto. Returning to São Paulo, he devoted himself passionately to the abolitionist and Republican campaign, an attitude that led to new frictions with the University of São Paulo School of Law. In 1885 he finally abandoned his legal studies and moved to Rio de Janeiro.
He became part of a group of bohemians that included figures such as Olavo Bilac, Luís Murat, Guimarães Passos and Francisco de Paula Ney. The history of this generation appears later in his novels A Conquista and Fogo Fátuo, dedicated to his friend Francisco de Paula Ney, a brilliant orator and journalist known for his bohemian life style and his famous anecdotes. He joined the newspaper Gazeta da Tarde, later moving to the sheet Cidade do Rio, where he held the position of secretary. From this period date his first published volumes.
In 1890, he married Maria Gabriela Brandão, daughter of educator Alberto Olympio Brandão. They had 14 children. One of those was the famous football player João Coelho Neto (known as "Preguinho").