«Camilo Ferreira Botelho Castelo Branco (1825-1890) foi um dos escritores mais prolíferos e marcantes da literatura portuguesa contemporânea tendo sido romancista, cronista, crítico, dramaturgo, historiador, poeta e tradutor. Teve uma vida atribulada, que lhe serviu muitas vezes de inspiração para as suas novelas. Foi o primeiro escritor de língua portuguesa a viver exclusivamente do que escrevia. Durante quase 40 anos, entre 1851 e 1890, escreveu à pena, logo sem qualquer ajuda mecânica, mais de duzentas e sessenta obras, com a média superior a 6 por ano. Prolífico e fecundo escritor, deixou obras de referência na literatura lusitana. Apesar de toda essa fecundidade, Camilo Ferreira Botelho Castelo Branco não permitiu que a intensa produção prejudicasse a sua beleza idiomática ou mesmo a dimensão do seu vernáculo, transformando-o numa das maiores expressões artísticas e a sua figura num mestre da língua portuguesa.» Fonte; http://www.luso-livros.net/biografia/... Camilo Ferreira Botelho Castelo-Branco (1st Viscount de Correia Botelho), was born out of wedlock and orphaned in infancy. He spent his early years in a village in Trás-os-Montes. He fell in love with the poetry of Luís de Camões and Manuel Maria Barbosa de Bocage, while Fernão Mendes Pinto gave him a lust for adventure, but Camilo was a distracted student and grew up to be undisciplined and proud. He intermittently studied medicine and theology in Oporto and Coimbra and eventually chose to become a writer. After a spell of journalistic work in Oporto and Lisbon he proceeded to the episcopal seminary in Oporto in order to study for the priesthood. During this period Camilo wrote a number of religious works and translated the work of François-René de Chateaubriand. Camilo actually took minor holy orders, but his restless nature drew him away from the priesthood and he devoted himself to literature for the rest of his life. He was arrested twice, the second time due to his adulterous affair with Ana Plácido, who was married at the time. During his incarceration he wrote his most famous work "Amor de Perdição" and later it inspired his "Memórias do Cárcere" (literally "Memories of Prison"). Camilo was made a viscount (Visconde de Correia Botelho) in 1885 in recognition of his contributions to literature, and when his health deteriorated and he could no longer write, Parliament gave him a pension for life. Going blind (because of syphilis) and suffering from chronic nervous disease, Castelo Branco committed suicide in 1890.