Miguel Torga
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ʒMiguel Torga, pseudonym of Adolfo Correia da Rocha (São Martinho de Anta, Viseu, Portugal, August 12, 1907 - Coimbra, January 17, 1995) was one of the greatest Portuguese writers of the 20th century. He wrote poetry, short stories, theater and a 16 volume diary.
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[edit] Life
He was born in the village of São Martinho de Anta in Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, 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 seminary in Lamego, Trás-os-Montes, in 1920 his father sent him to Brazil where he worked on the coffee plantation of an uncle who, finding him to be a clever student, paid his high school there and afterwards his medicine graduation (1933) at the University of Coimbra, in Coimbra, Portugal (to where he returns in 1925 to complete his secondary education). After graduation he worked in his village of São Martinho de Anta and in other places in the country, publishing his books from his own pocket for a number of years. In 1941, he established himself as an otolaryngologist physician in Coimbra.
He married Belgian Lecturer Andrée Crabbé and had an only daughter, Clara Crabée da Rocha (b. Coimbra, 1955), Literature Lecturer and second wife in 1985 of Vasco Graça Moura.
[edit] 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 of 1939 and February of 1940.
After the value of his work was being recognized, he went on to receive several awards, as the Prémio Camões in 1989 and the Montaigne award in 1981. He was several times nominated for the Nobel Prize of Literature, being the last one in 1994, but he never won.
His agnostic beliefs seems to reflect in his work, that deals mainly with the nobility of the human condition in a beautiful but ruthless world where God is absent or is nothing but a passive and silent, indiferent creator.
[edit] Works
[edit] 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)
[edit] Fiction
- Pão Ázimo (1931)
- Criação do Mundo. Os Dois Primeiros Dias (1937; autobiographic basis)
- 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)
- Contos da Montanha (1941; short stories)
- Tales From The Mountain (1991; English)
- O Senhor Ventura (1943; novel)
- Novos Contos da Montanha (1944; short stories)
- Vindima (1945)
- Fogo Preso (1976)
[edit] Theatre
- Terra Firme e Mar (1941)
- O Paraíso (1949)
- Sinfonia (1947; dramatic poetry)
[edit] Travel notes
- Portugal (1950)
- Traço de União (1955)
[edit] Diary
- Diário (16 volumes, published from 1941 to 1994)
[edit] Posthumous work
- Poesia Completa (2000)
[edit] Prizes
- Prémio Diário de Notícias (1969)
- Prémio Internacional de Poesia (1977)
- Montaigne Prize (1981)
- Prémio Camões (1989)
- Prémio Vida Literária da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores (1992)
- Prémio da Crítica, for his entire work (1993)
[edit] See also
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