José Saramago: biography and books

Winner of the Nobel Prize and the Camões Prize, José Saramago (1922-2010) is two major names in Portuguese literature. Or writer and author of classics like Convent Memorial (1982) e Ensaio about a cegueira (1995).

Find out the complete biography of the author and re-upload all his published works.

Biography of José Saramago

First years of life

Saramago was born in Azinhaga (region located in the province of Ribatejo, central region of Portugal), on November 16, 1922, not a member of a family of humble origins, from Campesino.

The father of the young writer José de Sousa was a civil servant of the Civil Registry. To his, Maria da Piedade, was a domestic. O irmão de ella, Francisco, he was two years older than a writer. José and Francisco were very next two maternal births: Jerónimo Melrinho and Josefa Caixinha.

A saída da village and a move to a large city

In 1924 the family decided to move to Lisbon onde or to the country of Saramago to work as a public security police. Nesse mesmo ano morreu Francisco, irmão of the future writer, who is barely four years old.

José Saramago had to leave the traditional school (which often does not work at Liceu Gil Vicente) for twelve years to enter a professional school. It was because of the Afonso Domingues Industrial School that he became a mechanical serralheiro.

Professional life

Depois of formed no technical course, Saramago worked as a mechanical office for two years. Later, he got an administrative vague at Social Security.

Not in the fifties he began to work as an editor called Estúdios Cor where he was responsible for the editorial production. During this period, to guarantee an extra sustenance, he began to act also as a translator-trade that he carried out in 1981.

In parallel, Saramago is also a literary critic and writer.

Interested in culture, he deixar to editor in 1971 he worked in Lisbon Diário where he was coordinator of a cultural supplement and editor. Later, he will be the director of the Diário de Notícias.

A career as a writer

In 1947 Saramago publicou o seu primeriro livro, a romance that he initially chamou To Viúva, more than it ended up being edited as a title Terra do Pecado.

After 10 years of literature, Saramago returned to publish, later in the form of a poem. Or free Os Poemas Possíveis It was launched in 1966.

In 1976 he made the decision to become a full-time author. From then on, he devoted himself exclusively to classical literature and productions, which he established as two of the greatest Portuguese writers.

José Saramago Foundation

O space created in Lisbon in 2007, at Casa dos Bicos - headquarters of the Fundação -, was developed to defend and disseminate Portuguese literature.

Or space from your foundation at Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, 10, in Lisbon.

Nobel Prize and other awards

Saramago received twenty and nine national and international awards, or more important deles foi or Nobel Prize for Literature awarded in 1998.

Three years before, the Portuguese writer had also been awarded as the Prêmio Camões by joint work.

Or author recebeu também or title of doutor honoris causa by 39 national and international universities. The titles offered by institutions of ensino two following countries: Portugal, Spain, Brazil, United States, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Uruguai, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Argentina, Ireland and Hungary.

Pessoal life

In 1944 Saramago married the painter Ilda Reis as he had a unique filha called Violante (1947).

O casal was divorced in 1970 and, not the same year, Saramago began a relationship with the writer Isabel da Nóbrega, as he remained in 1986.

Not since he separated from Isabel da Nóbrega, he met a journalist and translator Isabel del Río, as he married in 1988 and ended up two days.

Death

No day June 18, 2010 died at home, on the island of Lanzarote (archipelago das Canárias), or writer José Saramago, 87 years old. The author was a victim of multiple failure of two organs as a consequence of a leukemia.

Books by José Saramago

Romances

• Terra do sin (1947)
• Manual of painting and calligraphy (1977)
• Raised do chão (1980)
• Convent Memorial (1982)
• O ano da morte by Ricardo Reis (1984)
• A jangada de pedra (1986)
• History of the siege of Lisbon (1989)
• O second gospel Jesus Christ (1991)
• Ensaio about a cegueira (1995)
• All of you (1997)
• To cavern (2000)
• Or duplicate homem (2002)
• Ensaio on lucidity (2004)
• As intermittencies da morte (2005)
• A journey of the elephant (2008)
• Caim (2009)
• Skylight (2011)
• Halberds, halberds, spitting, spitting (2014)

Books of Poetry

• You have poems (1966)
• Joyfully (1970)
• O year 1993 (1975)

Theater

• A noite (1979)
• What farei com Este Livro? (1980)
• A second life of Francisco de Assis (1987)
• In Nomine Dei (1993)
• Don Giovanni ou O dissoluto acquitted (2005)

Chronicles

• Deste mundo e do outro (1971)
• A bagagem do traveler (1973)
• The apontaments (1976)
• Poetics two five senses - o ouvido (1979)
• Moby Dick in Lisbon (1996)
• Political sheets (1976-1998)

Newspapers

• Cadernos de Lanzarote I (1994)
• Cadernos de Lanzarote II (1995)
• Cadernos de Lanzarote III (1996)
• Cadernos de Lanzarote IV (1998)
• Cadernos de Lanzarote V (1998)
• Last calendar of Lanzarote (2018)
• Or cadern (2009)
• Or cadern 2 (2009)

Ensaios

• Stockholm speeches (1999)
• Give statues to pedra (1999)
• Comment le personnage fut le maître et l’auteur are apprenti (1999)
• Direito e os Sinos (1999)
• Here I am Zapatista - Saramago in Fine Arts (2000)
• Words for a better world (2004)
• Questto mondo non va bene che ne come altro (2005)
• The name and the thing (2006)
• Andrea Mantegna - Uma ethics, uma aesthetics (2006)
• Democracy and University (2010)

Other

• Travel to Portugal (1981, Viagens Literature)
• As little memories (2006, Memories)
• Quase object (1978, contos)
• Or I count on the unknown island (1997, contos)
• A major flower of the world (2001, child and adolescent)
• O silêncio da Água (2011, child and adolescent)
• Or lizard (2016, child-youth)

Quotes by José Saramago

You can olhar, see. You can see it, repair it.

We are all writers, only that some of us have not written.

We do not have pressure, but we do not lose time.

Or that it gives true meaning to or found and is looking for, and it is necessary to go very far to reach it or that it is ready.

We all know that every day that is born is the first day for some and it will be the last day for others and that, for a majority, it is another day.

We are founded in the world and cannot be self-conscious. Or otimista, ou é stupid, ou insensível ou milionário.

Literary style of Saramago

A vast production by José Saramago is known especially for being structured with long paragraphs and pouca ou nenhuma pontuação. The writer also had a lot of use of original parables in his works.

In thematic terms, Saramago always has a critic, questioner, seeking denounce social and historical injustices.

Controversial and courageous, many two serious books of him foram lidos as one faces both the Igreja (Saramago was a convict) and how much the State (or writer was a communist).

Two works cause special discomfort to the Catholic Church: O second gospel Jesus Christ (1991) - that chegou to be banned in Portugal is not to follow publication - e Caim (2009).

Interview as a writer

On October 26, 1998, José Saramago granted a long interview to the Brazilian program Roda Viva. An interview is available online in its entirety:

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