Luís Infante de la Cerda Sttau Monteiro (3 April 1926 – 23 July 1993) was a Portuguese writer, novelist and playwright, a man to whom "the only sacred thing was to be free as the wind".

Life

Monteiro was born and died in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, Portugal. When he was ten years old, he went to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, accompanying his father,

Armindo Monteiro Armindo Rodrigues de Sttau Monteiro (16 December 1896 – 15 October 1955), known as Armindo Monteiro, was a Portuguese university professor, businessman, diplomat and politician who exercised important functions during the Estado Novo perio ...

, who was serving as the Portuguese ambassador to the United Kingdom. He returned to Portugal in 1943, after his father was removed from his position by

António Salazar Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular m ...

. He graduated from the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...

with a degree in law and worked as a lawyer for a short time. At this time he met his Future Wife, a British Lady JUNE ELIZABETH GOODYEAR and got married, Subsequently, he returned to London, where he worked as a journalist. He came into contact with contemporary English literature and decided to become a writer. He also developed an interest in

Formula 2 Formula Two (F2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009 to 2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name returned aga ...

racing, a hobby that he would pursue for the rest of his life. When he went back to Portugal, he wrote for the magazine ' (under the Name "Manuel Pedrosa") and ''A Mosca'', a supplement of the

Diário de Lisboa The ''Diário de Lisboa'' was a daily evening newspaper published in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon between 1921 and 1990. History The newspaper was founded on 7 April 1921 by Joaquim Manso, who ran it until he died in 1956. He was succeeded b ...

. In 1960, he published his first novel '' Um Homem não Chora'' (A Man Doesn't Cry). In 1961, he received the Grand Prize from the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores for his play ''Felizmente Há Luar!'' (Fortunately, There is Moonlight!), although it could not be performed due to the censorship laws. He was arrested in 1962, on suspicion of participating in the , but was released. As a result, he once again went to England and lived there until 1967. Upon his return, he was immediately arrested again, by

PIDE The International and State Defense Police (; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of the PIDE were the border, immigration and emigrati ...

(the internal security agency), on the grounds that he had written theatrical pieces satirizing Salazar and the

Colonial War Colonial war (in some contexts referred to as small war) is a blanket term relating to the various conflicts that arose as the result of overseas territories being settled by foreign powers creating a colony. The term especially refers to wa ...

. Following the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

(in 1974), some of his plays were presented for the first time by the D. Maria II National Theatre. He continued to contribute to periodicals, notably '' Expresso''. He died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

at the age of sixty-seven. Luis and June had four children: Carolina Goodyear de Sttau Monteiro, Ana Lucia Goodyear de Sttau Monteiro, Diogo Goodyear de Sttau Monteiro and Tomas Goodyear de Sttau Monteiro. In 1994, he was posthumously awarded the

Military Order of Saint James of the Sword The Military Order of Saint James of the Sword (), formerly known as the Ancient, Most Noble and Enlightened Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, of the Scientific, Literary and Artistic Merit (), is one of the four former ancient Portu ...

Bibliography

Prose *''Um Homem não Chora'' (1960) *''Angústia para o Jantar'' (1961) In English: ''Rules of the Game'' (Knopf) or ''A Man of Means'' (Putnam); literally ''Anguish for Dinner'', translated by Ann Stevens *''E se for Rapariga Chama-se Custódia'' (1966) *''Redacções da Guidinha'' (1971) Plays *''Felizmente há Luar!'' (1961) *''Todos os Anos, pela Primavera'' (1963) *''O Barão'' (1965, theatrical adaptation of

the novella ''The Novella'' is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Richard Brome. It was first published in the 1653 Brome collection ''Five New Plays'', issued by the booksellers Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dring. Date and ...

Branquinho da Fonseca António José Branquinho da Fonseca (4 May 1905 – 7 May 1974) was a Portuguese writer. Some of his early works were published under the pseudonym António Madeira. He is best remembered as the first editor of '' Presença'', "one of the most imp ...

) *''Auto da Barca do Motor fora da Borda'' (1966) *''A Guerra Santa'' (1967) *''A Estátua'' (1967) *''As Mãos de Abraão Zacut'' (1968) *''Sua Excelência'' (1971) *''Crónica Aventurosa do Esperançoso Fagundes'' (1979) {{DEFAULTSORT:Monteiro, Luis de Sttau 1926 births 1993 deaths Writers from Lisbon 20th-century Portuguese dramatists and playwrights Portuguese male novelists 20th-century Portuguese novelists Portuguese male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Portuguese male writers