The Modern Novel

Biography

João Ubaldo Ribeiro was born in 1941 in Itaparica. His father was a lawyer and also founded the law course at the Universidade Católica de Salvador. When Ribeiro was two months old, the family moved to Aracaju. He was encouraged to read by both parents. He attended college with the future great Brazilian film director Glauber Rocha, with whom he remained good friends.

He started working as a journalist and then went to university to study law. He started but never completed army officer training, before going to the United States, studying economics at the University of Southern California. He returned the following year, lecturing in political science at the Universidade Federal da Bahia and working as a reporter for the Jornal da Bahia, where he eventually became editor-in-chief. He also worked for and edited various magazines, including with his friend, Glauber Rocha.

He had been writing novels and short stories but his first big success came with Sargento Getúlio (Sergeant Getúlio) in 1971. He went on to have success writing novels, stories and children’s works. Apart from a short spell in Berlin, he lived in Rio de Janeiro. He died in 2014.

Other links

João Ubaldo Ribeiro
Ribeiro, João Ubaldo (1941–)
João Ubaldo Ribeiro (in Portuguese)
João Ubaldo Ribeiro (in Portuguese)
João Ubaldo Ribeiro (in Portuguese)
João Ubaldo Ribeiro (in Portuguese)
Obituary (in Portuguese)