Gerardo Majella Mello Mourão (January 8, 1917 – March 9, 2007) was a Brazilian poet, fictionist, politician, journalist, translator, essayist and biographer, considered a key figure in both the national and all Lusophone literature. Mello Mourão was widely awarded, competing for the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

by nomination from The State University of New York. His most famous works are Invention of the Sea, with which he won the

Jabuti Prize The red-footed tortoise (''Chelonoidis carbonarius'') is a species of tortoise from northern South America. These medium-sized tortoises generally average as adults, but can reach over . They have dark-colored, loaf-shaped carapaces (back shel ...

, and the trilogy Os Peãs. Of this trilogy,

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

commented:

''"In all my work, what I tried to do was write the epic of America. I don't think I could. Who achieved it was the poet of The Country of the Moors".''

Mourão was praised and recognized by the likes of

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

, Antonio Houaiss,

Nélida Piñon Nélida Piñon Nélida Piñon (3 May 1937 – 17 December 2022) was a Brazilian author and professor. At the time of her death, Piñon was "considered among the foremost writers in Brazil today". Life Piñon was born in 1937 in Rio de Janeiro. He ...

Alfredo Bosi Alfredo Bosi (26 August 1936 – 7 April 2021) was a Brazilian historian, literary critic, and professor. He was a member of the Academia Brasileira de Letras (''Brazilian Academy of Letters''), occupying Chair number 12. One of his most famous b ...

, Dora Ferreira da Silva,

Wilson Martins Wilson Nunes Martins (born May 17, 1953, in Santa Cruz do Piauí, Piauí) is a Brazilian politician and member of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB). He served as Governor of Piauí from April 1, 2010, to April 2, 2014. References

...

and Antônio Cândido.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade Carlos Drummond de Andrade () (October 31, 1902 – August 17, 1987) was a Brazilian poet and writer, considered by some as the greatest Brazilian poet of all time. He has become something of a national cultural symbol in Brazil, where his wi ...

defined him as "the great poet of Brazil". His private life was marked by numerous arrests, given his involvement with the ideological movements of the twentieth century. A member of the Integralist Movement, he later became a willing German intelligence agent in Brazil. During the dictatorship of

Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...

, Mello Mourão was arrested 18 times. Already in the period of the Brazilian military dictatorship, he was taken to the inquiry and tortured, this time on charges of contributing to the Communists.

Works

In Portuguese. * ''Poesia do homem só'' (Rio de Janeiro: Ariel Editora, 1938) * ''Mustafá Kemel'' (1938) * ''Do Destino do Espírito'' (1941) * ''Argentina'' (1942) * ''Cabo das Tormentas'' (Edic̜ões do Atril, 1950) * ''Três Pavanas'' (São Paulo: GRD, 1961) * ''O País dos Mourões'' (São Paulo: GRD, 1963) * ''Dossiê da destruição'' (São Paulo: GRD, 1966) * ''Frei e Chile num continente ocupado'' (Rio de Janeiro: Tempo Brasileiro, 1966) * ''Peripécia de Gerardo'' (São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1972) rêmio Mário de Andrade de 1972* ''Astro de Apolo'' (São Paulo: GRD, 1977) * ''O Canto de Amor e Morte do Porta-estandarte Cristóvão Rilke'' radução(1977) * ''Pierro della Francesca ou as Vizinhas Chilenas: Contos'' (São Paulo: GRD, 1979) * ''Os Peãs'' (Rio de Janeiro: Record, 1982) * ''A invenção do saber'' (São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1983) * ''Valete de Espadas'' (Rio de Janeiro: Guanabara, 1986) * ''O Poema, de Parmênides'' radução(''in'' Caderno Lilás, Secretaria de Cultura da Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro: Caderno Rio-Arte. Ano 2, nr. 5, 1986) * ''Suzana-3 - Elegia e inventário'' (São Paulo: GRD, 1994) * ''Invenção do Mar: Carmen sæculare'' (Rio de Janeiro: Record, 1997), Prêmio Jabuti 1999 * ''Cânon & fuga'' (Rio de Janeiro: Record, 1999) * ''Um Senador de Pernambuco: Breve Memória de Antônio de Barros Carvalho'' (Rio de Janeiro: Topbooks, 1999) * ''O Bêbado de Deus'' (São Paulo: Green Forest do Brasil, 2000) * ''Os Olhos do Gato & O Retoque Inacabado'' (2002) * ''O sagrado e o profano'' (Florianópolis: Museu/Arquivo da Poesia Manuscrita, 2002) * ''Algumas Partituras'' (Rio de Janeiro: Topbooks, 2002) * ''O Nome de Deus'' osthumous(''in'': Confraria 2 anos, 2007)

References

Brazilian writers Brazilian poets Brazilian politicians Brazilian journalists 1917 births 2007 deaths {{Brazil-poet-stub