Heráclito Graça

Heráclito Graça (birth name Heráclito de Alencastro Pereira da Graça) (1837-1914) was a Brazilian lawyer, magistrate, jurist, politician, journalist and philologist.

Heráclito Graça

He was born in Icó, CE, on October 18, 1837, the son of Counselor José Pereira da Graça, Baron of Aracati. After completing primary and secondary studies, he studied law in the city of Recife, graduating in 1857. He was recognized as a brilliant academic. Upon graduation, he went to live with his family in Maranhão, where his father was a judge. He exercised the magistracy, starting as a prosecutor in São Luís. He later resigned, devoting himself more to politics and journalism.

He was part of the Conservative Party. He founded A Situação, a newspaper in which he defended the party's ideas. At the same time, he was working on a literary weekly which also had collaborators such as Joaquim Serra, Gentil Braga, Trajano Galvão and others. He was seen as an important figure not only in political journalism, but also in the field of Brazilian letters.

A native of Maranhão, he was elected as Maranhão representative in the Chamber of the Province in two legislatures. He also presided over Paraíba and Ceara. In 1877, he returned to Rio de Janeiro, initially going to practice law in the company of his great friend José de Alencar. In addition to having a deep knowledge of the vernacular, he was also an eminent jurist, and, as such, the Baron of Rio Branco invited him to be a lawyer for Brazil in the arbitration tribunals with Peru and Bolivia, after which he was appointed legal consultant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position he held until he died.

In addition to his numerous activities, he also excelled in the study of the Portuguese language, patiently annotating the classics and more systematically the Elucidario of Joaquim de Santa Rosa de Viterbo. As soon as the three volumes of Lições práticas da Língua Portuguesa by Cândido de Figueiredo were published, Graça wrote in Correio da Manhã a series of refutations under the heading “Philological Notes”. These essays ran all through 1903. He also published on similar themes in the Jornal do Comércio. Later, he brought together all these essays in a single volume called Fatos da linguagem: esboço crítico de alguns assertos do Sr. Cândido de Figueiredo.

He was the second occupant of chair 30 of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, to which he was elected on July 30, 1906, succeeding Pedro Rabelo. He died in Rio in 1914.[1]