Henry Koster

Born in 1793, he was an English merchant and travel writer who became known for Travels in Brazil. He spent years in Pernambuco after going to Brazil for business, and his writing grew out of what he saw there at close range.

His book, published in the 1810s, describes plantations, towns, local customs, slavery, religion, and the landscape of northeastern Brazil. Readers have continued to value it because it combines the eye of a businessman with the curiosity of a careful observer.

He died in 1820, quite young, but his work has lasted as an important firsthand record of Brazil in the early nineteenth century.