The remarkable writer, journalist and politician Humberto de Campos was born in October 25, 1886, in Miritiba (State of Minas Gerais in Brazil).

His origin was humble, and when his father died he was only six years old. He then went to live in the city of Sao Luiz, where he began working in the local market and at seventeen he moved to Para, where he began his journalistic activity in the newspaper "Folha do Norte".

In 1910, he was then 24 years old, he published his first book and two years later moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he became known in the literary world, making friends with several writers, among them Coelho Neto and Olavo Bilac.

He starts working at the newspaper O IMPARCIAL, side by side with famous people such as Rui Barbosa, Jose Verissimo, among others, becoming gradually more and more known nationwide for his chronicles published in newspapers of several Brazilian cities.

He is elected a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and becomes a congressman and enters politics, being revoked by the Brazilian Revolution of 1930.

The noisy case Humberto de Campos and its outcome

He died in Rio de Janeiro on December 5, 1934. He was only 48 years old. But the great writer did not interrupt his work. The known medium Chico Xavier published several books, the contents of which were received through automatic writing, dictated by that Spirit, a fact that generated a noisy court case, when the widow claimed, among other things, royalties for the copyright on the psychographic books.

The lawsuit, of high impact and controversial at the time, was considered unfounded. All data about this matter is available in the book Psychography before the Courts, by Dr. Miguel Timponi, published by the FEB (Brazilian Spiritist Federation). The book has the significant subtitle: The case of Humberto de Campos in its triple aspect: Legal, Scientific and Literary. It is worth reading this book.

From then onwards, the famous writer began using the pseudonym of Brother X, and had several books published under this name.

I interviewed Isabela Pereira Esperança, who lives in the city of Barra Mansa (State of Rio de Janeiro), an admirer, scholar and researcher of Humberto's work.

The interview is also unprecedented in its entirety. However, I copy below one of the questions and its answer for your appreciation: 

- What do you think of Humberto incarnate and the Spirit Humberto?

In Humberto Campo's first psychographic book, Chronicles from Beyond the Grave, published in 1937, three years after his disembodiment, which occurred in 1934, already in the preface the author mentions his materialistic past, in which transcendental ideas of perpetuity of the Spirit would be idealistic and far from the practical reality of daily life. As an incarnate his nature, rebellious and his bitterness due to the sufferings and pains in life experiences, as he himself says, prevented his faith to flourish in his troubled heart (...) full of religious and philosophical formulas of his time as he says "the worst sick is always the one who has experienced all known specific (medicines)".

Disembodied, he is surprised by the new situation beyond the grave. In his later years he thought that the tomb would be the very end, and when he becomes aware that life continues after death, he is surprised when facing the spiritual reality. It in no way corresponds to a religion full of symbols, angels, heaven and hell. This new experience finally opens his heart to the Gospel medicine, and he finds himself as a new student in the face of eternity, as reported in the story "De um Casarao de outro mundo" (free translation: From a mansion of another world": "Oh, my God, I am now learning the luminous alphabets that your great ones wrote with gold resplendent chalk on the book of nature. Let me be a boy again to understand the lesson you are teaching me now". The work of Humberto de Campos disembodied is the work of an intellectual advanced Spirit, now awake, who eagerly seeks to regenerate his heart, as he writes in the preface of the book Boa Nova (Good News): "There are Enlightened and Evangelized Spirits and now I ask God to bless me and let me hope that I will become one of the latter". 

Humberto de Campos awakens virtues and teaches with accuracy 

It will be of great interest to all of us if we read all published works authored by this Spirit, under the names of Humberto de Campos, and Brother X. The books are psychographics of Chico Xavier.

His work is full of a pure feeling, brought to him by the reading of the Gospel. His work, such as chronicles, interviews and reports, reflect a deep love and trust in the Holly Father, encouraging us to moral improvement. With simple examples, but consistent with every day's life, the spiritual author awakens virtues in us and encourages and teaches us with accuracy.

By showing his feelings in the extraordinary book Boa Nova (Good News), or the proposal in Brasil - Coração do Mundo, Pátria do Evangelho (Brazil - The Heart of the World, Homeland of the Gospel), and even through wonderful chronics and reports he shows an awakened Spirit, focused on solidarity with goodness in his heart and inspiring the readers to follow the good path. They are real literary gifts. 

Thus, we pay tribute to the writer by remembering the 80th anniversary of his return to the World of Spirits. Our gratitude and affection go to this benefactor of mankind.