About Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho de Souza was born on August 24, 1947. He is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and the recipient of numerous international awards. He is best known for his widely translated novel The Alchemist. Paulo starts his writing career in 1982, and published his first book named “Hell Archives” which fails to make a substantial impact. Coelho wrote The Pilgrimage that was published in the year 1987. He writes The Alchemist in the same year and published it through a small Brazilian publishing house that made an initial print run of 900 copies and decided it not to reprint. His book The Alchemist was published by the biggest publishing house in the United States in 1994. The Alchemist has gone on to sell more than 83 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling books in the history. The Alchemist has been translated into 81 different languages and it also wins the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a living author.
Personal Life
Coelho married artist Christina Oiticica in 1980. Together they had previously spent half the year in Rio de Janeiro and the other half in a country house in the Pyrenees Mountains of France. Coelho and Oiticica now permanently reside in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1996, Coelho founded the Paulo Coelho Institute, which provides support to children and the elderly. Though he was raised in a Catholic family, he left his faith in his 20s. His writings have been deemed incompatible with Catholic faith, because of its New Age, pantheist and relativist contents.
Books
Coelho has published 30 books. Three of them include The Pilgrimage, The Valkyries and Aleph is autobiographical, while the majority of the rest are fictional, although rooted in his life experiences. Other books include like Maktub, The Manual of the Warrior of Light and Like the Flowing River are collections of essays, newspaper columns, or selected teachings. In total, Coelho has sold more than 210 million books in over 170 countries worldwide, and his work has been translated into 81 languages. On 22 December 2016, Coelho was listed by UK-based Company Richtopia at number 2 in the list of 200 most influential authors in the world. Coelho posts up to three times a week at his blog, and has millions of fans on both Facebook and Twitter. In November 2014, Paulo Coelho finished uploading around 80,000 documents-manuscripts, diaries, photos, reader letters, press clippings and created a virtual Paulo Coelho foundation, together with the physical foundation which is based in Geneva.
Facts about Paulo Coelho
- When Paulo Coelho told his mom that he wanted to be a writer and expressed his views of not following the traditional path of living a life, his parents got worried and got him admitted to a mental institution.
- Paulo Coelho decided to do something which all of us long for doing one day travel. He travelled to countries like South America, Europe and North Africa as hippie until writing happened.
- Many won’t agree to this but it is a fact that the sales of the Alchemist started rising after Brida was released in markets.
- Paulo Coelho writes almost one book every two years but he says he actually gets the sign that it is time to write another book. So, whenever he finds a white feather, he begins a new book.
- The famous dialog from the Movie OM Shanti OM was when you want something; the entire Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. Is actually said by Paulo Coelho.