João Cabral de Melo Neto

João Cabral de Melo Neto was born on 9 January 1920 in Recife and spent his childhood on his family's sugar cane plantations, at São Lourenço da Mata and Moreno. A cousin of Manuel Bandeira, he settled in Rio in 1942 and soon afterwards entered the diplomatic service, which took him to Barcelona, London, Seville, Marseille and Dakar. Accused in 1952 of having formed a communist cell in the ministry, he was suspended without pay by the Vargas government, then reinstated in 1954 by the Supreme Court. Winner of the Camões Prize in 1990, he died in Rio on 9 October 1999.

In the catalogue 1

• PoetryThe Death and Life of a SeverinoMorte e vida severinaJoão Cabral de Melo Neto · 1955Literature