Herberto de Azevedo Sales (September 21, 1917 in Andaraí, state of Bahia, Brazil – August 13, 1999 in Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian journalist and writer.[1][2]
He was a member of Academia Brasileira de Letras.
Son of Heráclito Sousa Sales and Aurora de Azevedo.
He studied elementary school in Andaraí, a former mining town of Chapada Diamantina. He went to Salvador to attend the gym at the Antônio Vieira College, jesuits, where his talent was observed by the teachers, among whom Father Cabral, who had also encouraged the talents of Anísio Teixeira and Flávio Neves, in Caetité (hometown of both and where the Jesuit had directed the college "São Luís Gonzaga"), and later Jorge Amado.
Despite the favorable environment, Herberto dropped out of school in the fifth year, returning to his hometown, where he lived until 1948, working as a notary officer. He also worked as a prospector and merchant, activities that gave him the basis and knowledge for his first work.
There he wrote and published, in 1944, his debut novel, Gravel, based on the lives of diamond miners and considered a classic of literary regionalism. But the reception of the book in Andaraí, the writer's homeland, was not the best. He began to suffer death threats from the local commandos, the "corons", who felt represented in an unflattering way in the novel. On the other hand, the publication of the book had put Sales on the national intellectual scene. Thus, he decides to move to Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of the Republic, where he began working as a journalist in various press agencies, especially the magazine O Cruzeiro, which, for decades, was the most important periodical in Brazil.
In 1974 he moved to Brasília, where he was director of the National Book Institute. In the government José Sarney is appointed advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, until when, in 1986, he went to Paris, as a cultural attaché of the Embassy of Brazil. When he returns to the country, he seeks isolation in the small town of São Pedro da Aldeia.
He was married to Maria Juraci Xavier Chamusca Sales, with whom he had three children.
On April 6, 1971, he was chosen to occupy the Chair no. 3 of the Academia Brasileira de Letras.
He was also a member of Academia Brasiliense de Letras, from the Federal District.