Mário de Sá-Carneiro (; May 19, 1890 – April 26, 1916) was a

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 ...

poet and writer. He is one of the best known authors of the " Geração D'Orpheu", and is usually considered their greatest poet, after

Fernando Pessoa Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher, and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and ...

Life

Mário de Sá-Carneiro was born to a wealthy family with a strong

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tradition. His mother died in 1892 when he was two years old, and he was subsequently raised by his grandparents. He lived on a farm near

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

where he would spend most of his life. Sá-Carneiro started writing poems at the age of 12. By the age of 15, he had already translated several works by

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

. By 16, he had translated some works of

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...

and

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

. He began to write fiction in high school, partly due to his work as an actor. In 1911, he left for

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, where he was admitted to

law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

, although he never progressed beyond his first year. However, he met a man who would soon become his closest friend,

, and who introduced him to the group of modernists of

. After leaving the ''city of students'', as

is known, Sá-Carneiro went to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

to study at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. Although his father continued to pay for his studies, Sá-Carneiro stopped attending classes very soon after arriving in Paris. He lived a bohemian lifestyle, roaming round the theatres and bars. It was in

that he met Guilherme de Santa-Rita (Santa-Rita Pintor), the legendary Portuguese painter.

''Orpheu''

Together with

and

Almada Negreiros José Sobral de Almada Negreiros (7 April 1893 – 15 June 1970) was a Portuguese artist. He was born in the colony of Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe, the son of a Portuguese father, António Lobo de Almada Negreiros, and a Santomean mother ...

, he wrote for ''Orpheu'', a

literary journal A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and lett ...

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 meani ...

and artistic

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the fo ...

influenced by

cosmopolitanism Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single community. Its adherents are known as cosmopolitan or cosmopolite. Cosmopolitanism is both prescriptive and aspirational, believing humans can and should be " world citizen ...

and the European ''

Avant-Garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...

''. The magazine caused a scandal in Portuguese society because of its futuristic idealism. Only two issues of the magazine were published. A third one was prepared but never published, owing to the controversy surrounding the magazine and a lack of money. Today, ''Orpheu'' is known for being one of the finest and most important examples of Portuguese

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

, and for introducing

modernism Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

Depression

Sá-Carneiro memorial slab on the building where he committed suicide on April 26, 1916 (Rue Victor-Massé 29, Paris). In July 1915, Sá-Carneiro returned to Paris by train. He planned, with

, to publish issue no. 3 of '' Orpheu'', but his father and sponsor of the magazine, living in Mozambique at the time, refused to disburse more money. While World War I was in progress in the north of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, he left the university and started a relationship with a prostitute. A few months later, with growing financial problems and suffering from depression, Sá-Carneiro wrote a dramatic letter to

on March 31, 1916: :"Unless there occurs a miracle, next Monday, March (or even the day before), your friend Mário de Sá-Carneiro will take a strong dose of strychnine and disappear from this world." Extremely unhappy with his life, he still delayed the suicide by almost one month. But, as he had proclaimed, at the age of 25 he killed himself. '' Orpheu'' nr.3 was never published.

Work

Mário de Sá-Carneiro In 1910, he wrote his first play, ''Amizade'' (the title means friendship), in partnership with Tomás Cabreira Júnior. On the 9th of January 1911, Tomás Cabreira Júnior fatally shot himself with a shotgun in the middle of the school’s playground, causing Sá-Carneiro to write the poem “A um suicida” (To a suicidal). In 1912, he published ''Príncipio'', a collection of

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) fact ...

s dedicated to his father. In 1913, he published '' A Confissão de Lúcio'', one of his most famous works. This novella has a story where the fantastic reigns and it's a mirror to this age of ''Avant-garde''. In 1915, the work '' Céu em Fogo'', that gathered twelve novellas, was published. This book reveals the obsessions and disturbances that Sá-Carneiro was living with at the time. Sá-Carneiro's first publication of

was '' Dispersão'', published in 1913, which included twelve poems. He wrote another book, '' Indícios de Oiro'', but it was not published until over twenty years after his death, in the magazine ''

Presença ''Presença - Folha de Arte e Crítica'' (lit. "Presence: A Journal of Art and Critique") was a Portuguese magazine published in Coimbra from 10 March 1927 until 1940, producing a total of 54 issues during its existence. History ''Presença'' was a ...

''. In 1946 these two books were published along with some of Sá-Carneiro's poems in the ''Orpheu'' magazine as a unique book. His literary influences include

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fr ...

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

, Cesário Verde and António Nobre. English poet

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

translated three of his poems into English. American poet

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, '' Th ...

also admired his work, in particular his novel ''A Confissão de Lúcio'' (''Lúcio's Confession'').

Centennial Anniversary of Mário de Sá-Carneiro's death

The 100th anniversary of Mário de Sá-Carneiro's death, on April 26, 2016, was highlighted in Portugal and abroad with a number of publications and events, such as the colloquium "Sá-Carneiro et les autres" (Paris), the exhibit "Mil Anos Me Separam de Amanhã" (Paredes de Coura), integrated in the festival Realizar-Poesia, an exhibit at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, titled "Mário de Sá-Carneiro, 'O Homem São Louco'", and a conference and audio-theatre at the Casa Fernando Pessoa.

References

External links

Mário de Sá-Carneiro Online

Mário de Sá-Carneiro

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

* * *
''Mário de Sá Carneiro (1890-1916)'', Lisboa, Biblioteca Nacional, 1990

* ttp://cvc.instituto-camoes.pt/pessoas/mario-de-sa-carneiro-53829.html#.XMj99SbsZkR Biografia, Instituto Camões
Mário de Sá-Carneiro, escritas.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sa-Carneiro, Mario De 1890 births 1916 suicides 19th-century Portuguese writers 19th-century male writers 20th-century male writers 20th-century Portuguese poets Modernist poets People from Lisbon Portuguese male poets 1916 deaths