Biography

Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (13 May 1881 – 1 November 1922) was a Brazilian novelist and journalist. A major figure in Brazilian Pre-Modernism, he is famous for the novel Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, a bitter satire of the early years of the First Brazilian Republic. He was born on a Friday the 13th, considered superstitiously to be an unlucky day, but which he personally considered to bring good luck. His date of birth would also be marked seven years later by the signing of the Golden Law, which abolished slavery in Brazil.