This study attempts to comprehend Machado de Assis as a writer engaged in the debate about issues highlighted in the restricted Brazilian literate group that used newspapers as its main sphere of action in the second half of the nineteenth century. And moreover the study intends to verify to what extent this engagement in public debate of ideas contributed to the artistic and intellectual maturation of the author that in the following decade was recognized as one of the main writers of his time. With this goal, the research analyses the columns that Machado de Assis wrote to newspapers in Rio de Janeiro, between 1858 and 1878, a time period here considered as of his intellectual and artistic formation. The reading of those texts in comparison with the news published by newspapers from that period shows that Machado de Assis kept a close watch on events, expressing opinions and judgment about the politics of the Brazilian Empire, and also about the arts, mainly theater and literature. He engaged in polemics with other intellectuals, some of them more influential and experienced than Machado de Assis. Those texts also show that Machado de Assis thought critically about the cultural environment in which he lived, perceiving its fragilities and contradictions which he attributed to a certain tradition contrasted with modernization and renewal projects emerged with the achievements of a European modernity. His regular articles published in newspapers of Rio de Janeiro gave him a place to experiment and make rhetorical arrangements that was frequently used as a way to overcome misunderstandings and censorship which critical activities were subjected to. Thus, this study intends to contribute to reflections about the impasses and possibilities experienced by the intellectual and artist considering the limitations imposed to his autonomy to think, create and interfere in reality.