Machado de Assis

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis was a Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short story writer, widely regarded as the greatest writer in Brazilian literature. His wit and sharp critiques of society helped shape the realist movement in Brazil, and his best-known works include Dom Casmurro, Quincas Borba and Epitaph of a Small Winner, also published as Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. Self-taught and never a university student, Machado became the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1897.