Érico Veríssimo was the son of Sebastião Veríssimo da Fonseca and Abegahy Lopes Veríssimo. He was born into a wealthy family that went bankrupt, and consequentially didn't manage to complete secondary school because of the need to work.

Veríssimo settled in Cruz Alta as the owner of a drugstore, but was unsuccessful. He then moved to Porto Alegre in 1930, willing to live solely by selling his writing. There he began to live around writers of renown, such as Mário Quintana, Augusto Meyer, Guilhermino César and others. In the following year, he was hired to occupy the position of secretary of edition of the Revista do Globo, of which he would become editor in 1933. He then undertook the whole editorial project at Editora Globo, propelling its nationwide fame.

He publish his first work, Fantoches ("Puppets"), in 1932, with a sequence of short stories, mostly in the form of short plays. The following year, he saw his first great success with the romance Clarissa.

Veríssimo married in 1931 to Mafalda Volpe and had two children, Luis Fernando Veríssimo, also a writer, and Clarissa.

In 1943 he moved with his family to the US, where he gave lessons on Brazilian Literature in the University of Berkeley, until 1945. Between 1953 and 1956 he was director of the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Organization of American States, in Washington, D.C.. From these trips and from the stay in the US, two books originated: Gato Preto em Campo de Neve ("Black Cat in a Snow Field") in 1941, and A Volta do Gato Preto ("The Return of the Black Cat") in 1947.

His historical trilogy O Tempo e o Vento ("The Time and the Wind") is considered as his greatest work, written in the period of 1949-1961, from which arose primordial characters such as Ana Terra and Capitão Rodrigo that went on to become popular amongst his readers.

In 1965 Veríssimo published the romance O Senhor Embaixador ("His Excellency, the Ambassador"), in which he reflected upon the deviations of Latin America.

In the romance Incidente em Antares ("Incident in Antares"), written in 1971, he traces a parallel with Brazilian politics with the use of fantasy, with the rebellion of corpses during a strike of the gravekeepers, in the fictitious city of Antares.

After suffering from a heart attack in 1975, Veríssimo was unable to complete the second volume of his autobiography entitled Solo de Clarineta ("Clarinet Solo"), which was intended to be a trilogy, apart from a romance which would be entitled A Hora do Sétimo Anjo ("The Hour of the Seventh Angel").

His works have been compiled in three different occasions:

• Obras de Erico Verissimo ("Works of Érico Veríssimo") — 1956 (17 volumes)
• Obras completas ("Complete Works") — 1961 (10 volumes)
• Ficção completa ("Complete Fiction")— 1966 (5 volumes)

Érico Veríssimo's books have been translated to German, Spanish, Finnish, French, Dutch, Hungarian, Indonesian, English, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Romanian, Russian and Czech.

Short stories

• Fantoches ("Puppets")
• As mãos de meu filho ("My Son's Hands")
• O ataque ("The Attack")
• Os devaneios do general ("The reveries of the general")

Novels

• Clarissa — 1933
• Caminhos Cruzados ("Crossed Paths") — 1935
• Música ao Longe ("Music to the afar") — 1936
• Um Lugar ao Sol ("A place by the Sun")— 1936
• Olhai os Lírios do Campo ("Look at the Lilies of the Field")— 1938
• Saga — 1940
• O Resto É Silêncio| ("The Remaining is Silence") — 1943
• O Tempo e o Vento (The Time and the Wind"):
• O continente ("The Continent") — 1949
• O Retrato ("The Portrait") — 1951
• O Arquipélago ("The Archipelago") — 1961
• Noite ("Night") - 1954 (the versions published in Portugal contain also "A Sonata" ("The Sonata"), a short story written by a solitary music teacher, that sees himself transported to the past, to the year of his birth, where he falls in love for a beautiful woman)
• O Senhor Embaixador ("His Majesty, the Ambassador") — 1965
• O Prisoneiro ("The Prisoner") — 1967
• Incidente em Antares — 1971

Children's literature

• A vida de Joana d'Arc — 1935
• As AVenturas do Avião Vermelho — 1936
• Os Três Porquinhos Pobres — 1936
• Rosa Maria no Castelo Encantado — 1936
• Meu ABC — 1936
• As Aventuras de Tibicuera — 1937
• O Urso com Música na Barriga — 1938
• A Vida do Elefante Basílio — 1939
• Outra vez os três porquinhos — 1939
• Viagem à aurora do mundo — 1939
• Aventuras no mundo da higiene — 1939
• Gente e bichos — 1956

Travel literature

• Gato Preto em Campo de Neve — 1941
• A Volta do Gato Preto — 1946
• México — 1957
• Israel em Abril — 1969

Autobiographies

• O escritor diante do espelho — 1966 (in "Ficção Completa")
• Solo de Clarineta — Memórias (Volume I) — 1973
• Solo de clarineta — Memórias (Volume II) — 1976 (posthumous edition, organized by Flávio L. Chaves)

Essays

• Brazilian Literature: an Outline — 1945
• Mundo velho sem porteira — 1973
• Breve história da literatura brasileira

Biographies

• Um certo Henrique Bertaso — 1972

Translations

Romances

• The Ringer, by Edgar Wallace — 1931
• The Crimson Circle, by Edgar Wallace — 1931
• The Door with Seven Locks, by Edgar Wallace — 1931
• Jahrgang 1902, by Ernst Glaeser — 1933
• Point Counter Point, by Aldous Huxley — 1934
• Kleiner Mann, Was nun?, by Hans Fallada — 1937
• We Are Not Alone, by James Hilton — 1940
• Goodbye Mr. Chips, by James Hilton — 1940
• Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck — 1940
• Portrait of Jennie, by Robert Nathan — 1942
• They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, by Horace McCoy — 1947
• Then and Now, by Somerset Maugham — 1948
• The Clue of the New Pin), by Edgar Wallace — 1956

Short Stories

• Psychology, by Katherine Mansfield — 1939 (Revista do Globo)
• Bliss, by Katherine Mansfield — 1940
• Her First Ball, by Katherine Mansfield — 1940 (Revista do Globo)