Euclides da Cunha

Euclides (archaic spelling Euclydes) da Cunha (Portuguese pronunciation: [e̞wˈklidɪʒ dɐ ˈkũɲɐ], January 20, 1866 – August 15, 1909) was a Brazilian journalist, 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 ranked it above Tolstoy. Jorge Luis Borges also commented on it in his short story "Three Versions of Judas". The book was translated into English by Samuel Putnam and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1944. It remains in print.

Euclides da Cunha was 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.

Euclides da Cunha occupied the 7th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1903 until his death in 1909.

Euclides da Cunha was born January 20, 1866 in Cantagalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he lived until he was three years old. He attended Escola Militar da Praia Vermelha, a military school in Rio, beginning in 1886. He was Expelled from the military school in 1888, due to his participation in an act of protest during a visit of the Brazilian War Minister, Tomás Coelho (politician) (), who was a member of the last Conservative cabinet of the Brazilian Empire. He was readmitted to the Escola Militar in 1889. He was admitted to the Brazilian War School (Escola de Guerra) in 1891 . He was discharged from the Army in 1896 in order to dedicate himself to studying civil engineering.

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