Miguel Torga (), pseudonym of Adolfo Correia da Rocha ( São Martinho de Anta,

Sabrosa Sabrosa () is a municipality in the district of Vila Real in northern Portugal. The population in 2011 was 6,361, in an area of 156.92 km². History Although the municipality was established on 6 November 1945, the history of the region ...

Vila Real Vila Real () is the capital and largest city of the Vila Real District, in the North region. It is also the seat of the Douro intermunicipal community and of the Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro historical province. The Vila Real municipality covers ...

district, 12 August 1907 –

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Lisbon, Por ...

, 17 January 1995), is considered one of the greatest

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

writers of the 20th century. He wrote

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

, short stories, a genre in which he is accounted a master,

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

and a 16 volume diary, written from 1932 to 1993.Miguel Torga Biography at Infopédia (Portuguese)
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Life

He was born in the village of São Martinho de Anta in the

Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro Trás-os-Montes () is a geographical, historical and cultural region of Portugal. Portuguese for "behind the mountains", Trás-os-Montes is located northeast of the country in an upland area, landlocked by the Douro and Tâmega rivers to south a ...

region (northern Portugal), to small-time farmer parents Francisco Correia da Rocha and wife Maria da Conceição de Barros. After a short spell as student in a

catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

Lamego Lamego (; cel-x-proto, Lamecum) is a city and municipality in the Viseu District, in the Norte Region of the Douro in northern Portugal. Located on the shores of the Balsemão River, the municipality has a population of 26,691, in an area of 165 ...

, his father sent him to Brazil in 1920, where he worked on an uncle's coffee plantation. His uncle, finding him to be a clever student, decided to pay for his studies. Torga returned to Portugal in 1925 to complete high school and in 1933 graduated in

Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practice ...

at the University of Coimbra. After graduation he practiced in his village of São Martinho de Anta and in other places around the country. By this time, he started writing and self-publishing his books for a number of years. In 1941, he established himself as an

otolaryngologist Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspeciality within medicine that deals with the surgical a ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner ( Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through t ...

. He married the academic and literary critic Andrée Crabbé Rocha; they had one daughter, Clara Crabée da Rocha (b.

, 1955), a literary academic who in 1985 became the second wife in 1985 of Vasco Graça Moura.

Literary work and recognition

He was a member of the literary movement ''Presença'' for a short period before founding two cultural magazines in the 1930s. After the publication of the book ''O Quarto Dia da Criação do Mundo'' he was arrested for two months, between December 1939 and February 1940. His agnostic beliefs are reflected on his work, which deals mainly with the nobility of the human condition in a beautiful but ruthless world where God is either absent or nothing but a passive and silent, indifferent creator. The recognition of his work earned him several important awards, as the Montaigne Prize, in 1981, and the first ever Prémio Camões in 1989. He was several times nominated for the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

of Literature, from 1959 to 1994, and it was often believed that he would be the first Portuguese language writer to win it (

José Saramago José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which hec ...

would eventually become the first Portuguese literary Nobel winner in 1998). Brazilian novelist

Jorge Amado Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in ...

several times stated that Torga deserved that honour and the 1978 nomination had the support of

Vicente Aleixandre Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (; 26 April 1898 – 14 December 1984) was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man ...

, the winner of the previous years.

Works

Poetry

*Ansiedade (1928) *Rampa (1930) *O Outro Livro de Job (1936) *Lamentação (1943) *Nihil Sibi (1948) *Cântico do Homem (1950) *Alguns Poemas Ibéricos (1952) *Penas do Purgatório (1954) *Orfeu Rebelde (1958)

Fiction

*Pão Arábio (1931) *''Farrusco. The Blackbird and other Stories from the Portuguese''. Translated with an Introduction by Denis Brass. Illustrations by Gregorio Prieto. George Allen & Unwin Ltd.; London, 1950. *Criação do Mundo. Os Dois Primeiros Dias (1937; autobiographic basis) (English: The Creation of the World - The First and Second Day) *O Terceiro Dia da Criação do Mundo (1938; autobiographic basis) *O Quarto Dia da Criação do Mundo (1939; autobiographic basis) *O Quinto Dia da Criação do Mundo (1974; autobiographic basis) *O Sexto Dia da Criação do Mundo (1981; autobiographic basis) *Bichos (1940;

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

) *Contos da Montanha (1941;

) *O Senhor Ventura (1943;

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

) *Novos Contos da Montanha (1944;

) (English: New Tales from the Mountain) *Vindima (1945) (English: Grape Harvest) *Fogo Preso (1976)

Theatre

*Terra Firme e Mar (1941) *O Paraíso (1949) *Sinfonia (1947;

dramatic poetry Verse drama is any drama written significantly in verse (that is: with line endings) to be performed by an actor before an audience. Although verse drama does not need to be ''primarily'' in verse to be considered verse drama, significant portion ...

)

Travel notes

*Portugal (1950) *Traço de União (1955)

Diary

*Diário (16 volumes, published from 1941 to 1994) (Diary)

Posthumously published work

*Poesia Completa (2000)

Prizes

*Prémio

Diário de Notícias ''Diário de Notícias'' () is a Portuguese daily newspaper published in Lisbon, Portugal. Established since 1864, the paper is considered a newspaper of record for Portugal. History and profile ''Diário de Notícias'' was first published in ...

(1969) *Prémio Internacional de Poesia (1977) *

Montaigne Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne ( ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a lite ...

Prize (1981) * Prémio Camões (1989) *Prémio Vida Literária da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores (1992) *Prémio da Crítica, for his entire work (1993)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torga, Miguel 1907 births 1995 deaths People from Sabrosa 20th-century Portuguese poets Portuguese male poets Portuguese medical writers Portuguese agnostics University of Coimbra alumni Camões Prize winners 20th-century Portuguese people 20th-century male writers Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 20th-century pseudonymous writers