Alceu Amoroso Lima

Early years

Born into a middle-class family in Petrópolis, Lima grew up in the traditional neighborhood of Laranjeiras, in Rio de Janeiro. He was educated by the private tutor João Köpke, who taught him to read and write, and also received piano lessons from Alberto Nepomuceno. Between 1900 and 1909, he traveled through Europe with his family, and upon returning, enrolled at Colégio Pedro II, where he was reported as an ''atheist and Jacobin''. In 1913, he graduated from the National Faculty of Law with a degree in Law and Social Sciences.

Youth

In the year of his graduation, Lima travelled to Paris, where he attended lectures by Henri Bergson at the Collège de France. As the First World War broke out, he returned to Brazil, where he was appointed to a post at the Itamaraty, but soon left it to assume the management of his family's textile factory.

In 1919, he began working as a literary critic for O Jornal, at a time when he became increasingly close to Catholicism, influenced by his readings of Chesterton and Maritain, as well as by his friendship with the lawyer Jackson de Figueiredo. He converted in 1928, under the supervision of Father Leonel Franca.

Teaching

Lima had a long career as a professor, teaching Brazilian literature at the National Faculty of Philosophy and at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, which he helped found. He also gave lectures on Brazilian culture at the Sorbonne and at the University of New York.