Euclides da Cunha

Euclides (archaic spelling Euclydes) da Cunha (January 20, 1866 — August 15, 1909), was a Brazilian writer, sociologist and engineer. His most important work is Os Sertões (Rebellion in the backlands), a non-fictional account of the military expeditions promoted by the Brazilian government against the rebellious village of Canudos, known as the War of Canudos. This book was a favorite of Robert Lowell, who put it above Tolstoy, though he only read it in the rather poor English translation.

Euclides da Cunha was also heavily influenced by Naturalism and its Darwinian proponents. Os Sertões characterised the coast of Brazil as a chain of civilisations while the interior was more primitively influenced.

Euclides da Cunha was the basis for the character of The Journalist in Mario Vargas Llosa's The War of the End of the World.

Timeline

• January 20, 1866, Euclides da Cunha was born in Cantagalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he lived until he was three years old.
• 1886 - Attended Escola Militar da Praia Vermelha, a military school in Rio.
• 1888 - Expelled from the military school, due to his participation in an act of protest during a visit of the Brazilian War Minister, Tomás Coelho, who was a member of the last Conservative cabinet of the Brazilian monarchy.
• 1889 - Admitted again to the Escola Militar.
• 1891 - Admitted to the Brazilian War School (Escola de Guerra).
• 1896 - Discharged from the Army in order to dedicate himself to studying civil engineering.
• 1897 - Accompanied the Army in the Campanha de Canudos, against a rebellious group of peasants under the leadership of Antonio Conselheiro. Between 7th of August and 1st of October, he was in the hinterland, as war correspondent for the O Estado de São Paulo newspaper.
• 1903 - Elected to the Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazilian Academy of Letters).
• 1903 - Established the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico, the Historical and Geographic Institute
• 1909 - Admitted as chairman and professor of Logic at the Colégio Pedro II, a public secondary school in Rio.
• August 15, 1909 - Killed in a duel, by a young Army lieutenant, who was the lover of his wife, in Piedade, Rio de Janeiro.

Works

• 1902 Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands)
• 1907 Contrastes e confrontos, lit. Contrasts and Confrontations
• 1907 Peru versus Bolívia
• 1939 Canudos, diário de uma expedição - news articles published in the periodical O Estado de São Paulo
• 1967 Canudos e inéditos - news articles published by the periodical O Estado de São Paulo

Sites

Casa Euclidiana, São José do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, Brazil(portuguese language)