All Topics  
Paulo Coelho

 
Paulo Coelho

   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link






 

Paulo Coelho



 
 
Paulo Coelho (born August 24, 1947) is a Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
ian lyricist
Lyricist

A lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist....
 and novelist.

o Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , is the second largest city of Brazil and South America, behind S?o Paulo, and the third largest metropolitan area in South America, behind S?o Paulo and Buenos Aires....
, Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
. His father, Pedro, was an engineer, and his mother Lydia was a home-maker. He attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded with "My dear, your father is an engineer. He's a logical, reasonable man with a very clear vision of the world.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Paulo Coelho'
Start a new discussion about 'Paulo Coelho'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Quotations


...And that dream, day by day, became less important. May be cause it wasn't really his dream

Don't think about what you've left behind.

"The Alchemist"

If I am really part of your dream, you will come back one day.

Fatima

It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.

It's not often that money saves a person's life.

"The Alchemist"

May love be your guide in every moment of your life.






Encyclopedia


Paulo Coelho (born August 24, 1947) is a Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
ian lyricist
Lyricist

A lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist....
 and novelist.

Biography

Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , is the second largest city of Brazil and South America, behind S?o Paulo, and the third largest metropolitan area in South America, behind S?o Paulo and Buenos Aires....
, Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
. His father, Pedro, was an engineer, and his mother Lydia was a home-maker. He attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded with "My dear, your father is an engineer. He's a logical, reasonable man with a very clear vision of the world. Do you actually know what it means to be a writer?" After researching, Coelho concluded that a writer "always wears glasses and never combs his hair" and has a "duty and an obligation never to be understood by his own generation," amongst other things. At 17, Coelho's introversion and opposition to follow a traditional path led to his parents committing him to a mental institution
Psychiatric hospital

A psychiatric hospital is a hospital specializing in the treatment of serious mental illness, usually for relatively long-term inpatients.Two rules usually govern whether someone should be placed in a psychiatric hospital: if someone is an immediate threat to harm themselves, or to harm other people....
 from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20. Coelho later remarked that "It wasn't that they wanted to hurt me, but they didn't know what to do... They did not do that to destroy me, they did that to save me.

At his parents' wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream to become a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippy, traveling through South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
, North Africa
North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
, Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, and Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 and becoming immersed in the drug culture of the 1960s
1960s

The 1960s list of decades were the years from the start of 1960 to the end of 1969. The term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends in the west, particularly United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Spain, Italy, and Ger...
. Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter, composing lyrics for Elis Regina
Elis Regina

Elis Regina Carvalho Costa, known simply as Elis Regina was a singer of M?sica Popular Brasileira who achieved great success and recognition during her lifetime....
, Rita Lee
Rita Lee

Rita Lee Jones, now Rita Lee Jones Carvalho, known simply as Rita Lee, is a Brazilian Rock singer and composer. Lee continues to be a popular figure in Brazilian entertainment, where she is also known for being an animal rights activist and a vegetarian....
, and Brazilian icon
Icon

An 'icon' is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity. More broadly the term is used in a wide number of contexts for an image, picture, or representation; it is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it either concretely or by analogy, as in semiotics; by extension, ...
 Raul Seixas
Raul Seixas

Raul Santos Seixas , was a Brazilian rock music composer, singer, songwriter and Record producer. He was born in Salvador, Brazil , Brazil, and died of a myocardial infarction in S?o Paulo....
. In 1974, Coelho was arrested and tortured for "subversive" activities by the ruling militia, who viewed his lyrics as left-wing and dangerous.

In 1986, Coelho walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela
Way of St. James

The Way of St. James or St. James' Way is the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the Twelve Apostles, James, son of Zebedee, are buried....
 in northwestern Spain, a turning point in his life. On the path, Coelho had a spiritual awakening, which he described autobiographically in The Pilgrimage
The Pilgrimage

The Pilgrimage is a 1987 in literature novel by Brazil novelist Paulo Coelho. It is a recollection of Paulo's experiences as he made his way across Northern Spain on the Pilgrimage of Way of St....
. In an interview, Coelho stated "[In 1986], I was very happy in the things I was doing. I was doing something that gave me food and water -- to use the metaphor in The Alchemist, I was working, I had a person who I loved, I had money, but I was not fulfilling my dream. My dream was, and still is, to be a writer." Coelho would leave his lucrative career as a songwriter and pursue writing full-time.

Writing career

In 1982 Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which failed to make any kind of impact. In 1985 he contributed to the Practical Manual of Vampirism, although he later tried to take it off the shelves since he considered it “of bad quality." After making the the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
Way of St. James

The Way of St. James or St. James' Way is the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the Twelve Apostles, James, son of Zebedee, are buried....
 in 1986, Coelho wrote The Pilgrimage. The following year, Coelho wrote The Alchemist
The Alchemist (novel)

The Alchemist is an allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho first published in 1988. It follows Santiago, a young Spanish shepherd, on a journey to fulfill his Personal Legend....
 and published it through a small Brazilian publishing house who made an initial print run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint. He subsequently found a bigger publishing house, and with the publication of his next book Brida, The Alchemist became a Brazilian bestseller. The Alchemist has gone on to sell more than 65 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling books in history
List of best-selling books

This page provides lists of best-selling single-volume books, book series, authors, and children's books to date and in any language. For some books, accurate accounting has proven impossible, so the book is excluded or an educated guess by an expert is provided....
, and has been translated into more than 67 languages, winning the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a living author.

Since the publication of The Alchemist, Coelho has generally written one novel every two years including By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

'By the River Piedra I sat Down and Wept' is one of Paulo Coelho's most prominent titles. This is the first part in Coelho's trilogy "On the Seventh Day"....
, The Fifth Mountain
The Fifth Mountain

The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho was published in 1996 and was his fourth major publication.The story is based on the story of Elijah from the Judeo-Christian The Bible ....
, Veronika Decides to Die
Veronika Decides to Die

Veronika Decides to Die is a novel by Paulo Coelho. It tells the story of 24 year old Veronika, who appears to have everything in life going for her, but who decides to kill herself....
, The Devil and Miss Prym
The Devil and Miss Prym

The Devil and Miss Prym is a novel by the Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho.The book tries to find an answer to a question that arises in the human mind at times of distress, rejection or betrayal....
, Eleven Minutes
Eleven Minutes

Eleven Minutes is a 2003 novel by Paulo Coelho based around a young prostitute named Maria....
, Like the Flowing River
Like the Flowing River

Like the Flowing River: Stories, 1998-2005 is a 2006 story collection of Paulo Coelho.This is a collection of reflections from Paulo Coelho....
, The Valkyries and The Witch of Portobello
The Witch of Portobello

The Witch of Portobello is a fiction work by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho published in 2007, about a woman born in Transylvania to a Romani people mother, who is orphaned and later adopted by a wealthy Lebanese people couple....
. He has stated that he only starts writing a book after finding a white feather in the month of January of every odd year. This dates back to The Pilgrimage; while trying to overcome procrastinating launching his writing career, Coelho said "If I see a white feather today, that is a sign that God is giving me that I have to write a new book." Coelho found a white feather in the window of a shop, and began writing that day.

In total, Coelho has published 26 books. Two of them -- The Pilgrimage and The Valkyries -- are autobiographical, while the majority of the rest are fictional, although rooted in his life experiences. Others, like Maktub
Maktub

Maktub is a Seattle, Washington-based music group formed in the late 1990s that combines elements of hip hop music, rhythm and blues, soul , and funk, with a sprinkling of jazz and rock and roll....
 and The Manual of the Warrior of Light
The Manual of the Warrior of Light

The Manual of the Warrior of Light is a 1997 collection of Paulo Coelho's teachings summed up into one volume. It includes proverbs, extracts from the Tao Te Ching, the Bible, the book of Chuang Tzu, the Talmud and various other sources, and is written in the form of short philosophical passages....
, are collections of essays, newspaper columns, or selected teachings. In total, Coelho has sold more than 100 million books in over 150 countries worldwide, and his works have been translated into 67 languages. He is the all-time bestselling Portuguese author.

Adaptations

Several of Coelho's books have been adapted into other mediums.

In 2003, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. is one of the world's largest film producer of film and television.It is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York City....
 bought the rights to the film adaptation of The Alchemist. The project stalled and the movie never materialized, reportedly for problems with the script. At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival , founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals alongside Venice Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival....
, Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein

Harvey Weinstein, Order of British Empire is an United States film film production and movie studio chairman. He is best known for his 26-year career as co-founder of Miramax Films; he and his brother Bob Weinstein have been co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, their new film production company, since 2005....
 announced that he had bought the rights to the film and will serve as its producer. Laurence Fishburne
Laurence Fishburne

Laurence John Fishburne III is an Academy Award-nominated and Tony Award-winning United States actor of film and theater, as well as playwright, film director, and Film producer....
 is set to direct, and to play the eponymous character. The movie will have a reported budget of $60 million. Veronika Decides to Die has also been adapted into a screenplay by Das Films with Muse Productions and Velvet Steamroller Entertainment. The film began shooting on May 12, 2008 with Emily Young
Emily Young (film director)

Emily Young is an award-winning English Film_director and Screen_writer. Her film Veronika_Decides_to_Die_, an adaptation of the book by Paulo Coelho and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar is due to be released in 2009....
 directing and Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar

Sarah Michelle Prinze, better known by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar, is an United States actor. She is best known for her role as the character Buffy Summers in the acclaimed television program Buffy the Vampire Slayer , for which she won in total six Teen Choice Awards, and the Saturn Award for Best Genre TV Actress and...
 starring.

In June 2007, Paulo Coelho announced The Experimental Witch Project, a collaborative project based on The Witch of Portobello. In the book, the life story of the main character, Athena, is told in the form of interviews with 15 characters. Coelho asked aspiring filmmakers to upload their interpretations of one of the narratives to Myspace
MySpace

MySpace is a social network service website with an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos for teenagers and adults internationally....
 or YouTube
YouTube

YouTube is a Video hosting service website where users can upload, view and share video clips. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005....
. The winners were awarded $4,638 and will have their content edited into a 52-minute TV movie.

Acclaim and criticism


Although his work has sold very well, his election to the Brazilian Academy of Letters
Academia Brasileira de Letras

Academia Brasileira de Letras is a Brazilian literature non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century by a group of 40 writers and poets inspired by the Acad?mie Fran?aise....
 proved controversial. Seen by some Brazilian literary critics as a lesser author whose material is too simplistic and similar to that of self-help
Self-help

The term self-help refers to self-guided improvement?economically, intellectually, or emotionally?most frequently with a substantial psychology or spirituality basis....
 books. Criticism of his work arises mostly from his plain, direct style and borrowing of ideas from other authors. For example the ending of "The Alchemist
The Alchemist (novel)

The Alchemist is an allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho first published in 1988. It follows Santiago, a young Spanish shepherd, on a journey to fulfill his Personal Legend....
" is borrowed from the fabel
Fabel

Fabel is a critical term and Dramaturge technique pioneered by the twentieth-century Germany theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht.Fabel should not be confused with 'fable', which is a form of short narrative ....
 "The treasure under the bridge" by Nachman of Breslov
Nachman of Breslov

Nachman of Breslov , also known as Reb Nachman of Bratslav, Reb Nachman Breslover , Nachman from Uman , was the founder of the Breslov ....
.

File Sharing

Paulo Coelho is a strong advocate of spreading his books through peer-to-peer file sharing networks. A fan posted a Russian translation of one of his novels online. Sales of his book jumped from 3,000 to one million in three years, with no additional promotion or publicity from his publishers. Coelho took to pirating his own books on Pirate Coelho which provides free translations of many of his books He was caught by the head of HarperCollins, Jane Friedman, who noticed that one of the unauthorized versions Coelho linked to had notes from his own manuscript. The two reached a compromise: each month a new novel can be read for free on the publisher's website. Due to the openness regarding his content, author Jeff Jarvis
Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis is an Media of the United States. He is the former television critic for TV Guide and People magazine, creator of Entertainment Weekly, Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News, and a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner....
 named Coelho 'the Googliest author' in his book What Would Google Do.

Personal life

Coelho and his wife of 26 years, Christina Oiticica, split time living in France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 and Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , is the second largest city of Brazil and South America, behind S?o Paulo, and the third largest metropolitan area in South America, behind S?o Paulo and Buenos Aires....
, Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
. He was raised as a Jesuit but converted to Catholicism
Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its Theology and doctrines, its Catholic liturgy, Ethics, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
 later in life. He notes that although he attends mass, he disagrees with the Pope
Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City. The current pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected April 19, 2005 in Papal conclave, 2005....
 on several issues, both political and social.

In 1996, Coelho founded the Paulo Coelho Institute, which provides aid to children and elderly people with financial problems. In September 2007, Coelho was named a Messenger of Peace to the United Nations
United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
.

  • Member of the Board of the Shimon Peres Center for Peace
  • UNESCO special counsellor for “Intercultural Dialogues and Spiritual Convergences”
  • Board Member of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
  • Member of the Brasilian Academy of Letters
  • Member of INI International Advisory Council - HARVARD INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATION INITIATIVE
  • Member of the Board, Doha Center of Media Freedom
  • Advisory Board Member, Maybach Foundation


Bibliography

Note: Although the biography section of Coelho's website states that his first book was published in 1982, the Official Fan Club Paulo Coelho website lists two additional books published in 1974: The Manifest of Krig-há and Theater For Education.

External links