Herberto Sales
Herberto de Azevedo Sales was a Brazilian writer, journalist, and merchant. He was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
Biography
Early years
Sales completed his elementary education in his hometown, Andaraí, a small mining city in the Chapada Diamantina. He then moved to Salvador to attend the Jesuit Antonio Vieira College, where his literary talent was noticed and stimulated by teachers, especially Father Cabral, who also taught and encouraged both Anísio Teixeira and Jorge Amado.Adulthood
Despite the supportive environment, Sales left school without graduating, and returned to his hometown, where he lived until 1948, working as a notary officer. Around that time, he also worked as a diamond prospector and merchant. These experiences inspired his first novel, Cascalho, which drew the attention of the dictionarist Aurélio Buarque de Holanda for its rich regional vocabulary.The novel sparked controversy in Sales's hometown, earning the author death threats from wealthy diamond miners who felt they had been portrayed in a negative light. Sales then to moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he began working as a journalist for various press agencies, especially the magazine O Cruzeiro, at whose publishing house he edited the monumental collection História da Literatura Ocidental.
His second novel, Além dos Marimbus, which recounts a man's travel to purchase a farm, garnered acclaim from the likes of João Guimarães Rosa, Marques Rebelo, and Rachel de Queiroz.
In 1965, he published one of his chefs d'oeuvre, Dados Biográficos do Finado Marcelino, whose minutious technique, careful craft, and melancholic atmosphere have been compared to those of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. In the novel, the narrator attempts to reconstruct scenes from the life of his deceased uncle, a mysterious, eccentric figure who made his fortune as a merchant, spending his final years as a bon vivant.
In 1974, Sales moved to Brasília, where he became director of the National Book Institute. In 1977, his sci-fi novel O Fruto do Vosso Ventre, a critique of the military dictatorship portraying a dystopian future, was awarded the Prêmio Jabuti. During José Sarney's term, Sales was appointed advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, before moving to Paris, where he served as cultural attaché at the Brazilian Embassy. Upon returning to Brazil, he sought isolation at the small town of São Pedro da Aldeia.