Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

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Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century)

Early Life

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis’ father, Francisco José de Assis, was a native of Rio de Janeiro, the son of free mulattoes, and a housepainter by trade. His mother, Maria Leopoldina Machado da Câmara, was a Portuguese woman from the Island of São Miguel in the Azores. His mother could read and write, and similarities observed between her handwriting and that of her son indicate that she may have taught her son how to read and write as well.

Machado had a younger sister, Maria, who died of measles in 1845; his mother died of tuberculosis in 1849, when he...

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