MACHADO DE ASSIS (1838-1908), Brazil's greatest novelist, was born in a poor carioca district of Rio de Janeiro. In the course of his lifetime he never ventured more than a few miles outside his native city. He worked as a newspaper reporter before entering the civil service where he rose to become the head of a department. During his writing career he published more than two hundred short stories and nine novels, including Dom Casmurro, Esau and Jacob and The Wager. He was one of the founders, and the first president, of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.