Paulo Coelho

Born in 1947, Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian poet and novelist. As a young man Paulo dreamed of becoming a writer, but his parents didn't understand his ambition. Since he decided that writers were non-conformists, Paulo adopted a way of life that frightened his orderly parents. They thought he needed psychiatric help and had him committed to an asylum when he was 17. After breaking out three times, he was released at age 20.

He tried to conform, even started taking classes in law. But, it wasn't his life. He dropped out of school after a year, and took to the roads, becoming a hippie in the 1960's. When he finally returned to Brazil, he began to write songs. He took up studying the occult and magic, for his music. But, the lyrics soon landed him in jail. Then in 1986, Paulo took a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago, or St. James Way. Many people take this 500 mile trek each year as a spiritual path to find enlightenment. And, Paulo did.

He realized he was wasting his life writing songs. What he really wanted to do, and always had wanted to do, his Personal Legend, was to write novels. He became an acclaimed author. His book, The Alchemist, is in the Guinness World Record book for the most translated book by a living author. It has been translated into 67 different languages.

Paulo writes a book every two years. He has published 30 books, three of which are autobiographical, and the rest fiction. Translated into 80 different languages, his books have sold in more than 170 countries, and numbers out at over 210 million books. He usually writes up to three blog posts a week and has millions of followers on Facebook and Twitter.

On these accounts, he gives little axioms for every day life. Ex: "Our character is what we do when we think no one is watching." (Twitter, April 9, 2016) and "If we don't know where to go, no wind is favorable." from his book, "The Pilgrimage".

In 1980, he married Christina Oiticica. They are still together. In 2006 he decided to walk the St. James Path again for the 20th anniversary. this time he sign autographs along the way. It took him three months to walk a little over 500 miles. He also, took a 90 day journey around the world. He rode the Transiberrian train to Vladivostok. During this trek he wrote a daily blog detailing his trip and sharing what he saw. His media presence is massive. Feeling the internet is the way of the future, Paulo was the first best-selling author to offer his novel for free on-line. He has a daily blog on Facebook, twitter, Wordpress and My Space. He is also on Youtube and Flickr.

Because of his extensive experience with the internet, Paulo asked readers to adapt his book, "The Witch of Portobello" onto the screen in his on-line project, "The Experimental Witch". Paulo Coelho is a prolific and extremely hard working writer.