Raúl Brandão, writer and journalist considered to be the precursor of modern novels in Portugal, is the author of “As Ilhas Desconhecidas”, one of the most significant works about the Azores archipelago, considered “one of the best travel books of all times in Portuguese literature”.
He was born in Foz do Douro, Porto, on 12th March 1867, and after finishing high school and studying for a degree in Literature, he entered the military in 1888. He finished the officers’ course in Mafra, moving to Guimarães, where he was posted as an ensign.
After his early retirement in 1911, he engaged in journalism and literature, authoring books like “Húmus”, his masterpiece, or plays like “O Gebo e a Sombra”, which have impressed several generations until today.
An active element of the “90s generation”, influenced by the decadent symbolist aesthetics of Parisian origin, he developed, in a visionary climate, a critical perspective on the bourgeois materialist values dominant in the society of his time. Together with António Nobre and Justino de Montalvão, he coordinated the publication of the magazine “Os Insubmissos”, having also directed the “Revista de Hoje” with Júlio Brandão and D. João de Castro.
The human condition is the most significant theme of his work, elevated to its maximum exponent in works such as “História de um Palhaço” or when he writes his “Memórias”, one of the great national references in this literary genre. Son and grandson of fishermen, in 1923 he published the book “Os Pescadores”, one of his most sublime works, in which his knowledge of the life of the sea stands out.
After his retirement, he lived between his “Casa do Alto”, in Nespereira, Guimarães, and Lisbon, where he died on 5th December 1930, buried in the Prazeres Cemetery and, in 1934, transferred to the Guimarães Cemetery.