Urbano Tavares Rodrigues

Urbano Tavares Rodrigues was born in Lisbon on December 6, 1923, son of a family of large landowners of Moura, Alentejo. He attended primary school in Moura. After moving to Lisbon he joined the Camões Lyceum (Liceu Camões), where he was a fellow student of Luís Lindley Cintra and Antonio, brother of Vasco Gonçalves He graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, where he studied Romance Philology. He was a friend of Mário Soares from his youth, although they did not always agree over politics.[2]

Rodrigues was an activist in opposition to the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, which made it difficult for him to find work as a teacher. He was always linked to the Portuguese Communist Party. He spent some time in prison in Caxias, and for a long period he was in exile in France. He met some of the intellectuals of the 1950s in Paris, including Albert Camus, who became a friend.[2] He taught at the French universities of Montpellier, Aix and the Sorbonne in Paris.[3] He moved back to Portugal after the return of freedom of expression and democracy in Portugal on April 25, 1974. In 1984 he obtained a PhD in Literature for a thesis on the work of Manuel Teixeira Gomes. In 1993 he retired from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon as a full professor.[3]

Rodrigues wrote for various magazines and newspapers, including the Bulletin des Études Portugaises, Colóquio-Letras, Jornal de Letras, Vértice and Nouvel Ovservateur. He was director of the review Europa and theater critic for the journals O Século and Diário de Lisboa.[3] He was a co-founder of the Minotauro publishing house with Figueiredo Sobral.[4] This company published the Minotauro magazine.[5] Rodrigues was a member of the Lisbon Academy of Science and the Academy of Brazilian Literature. He received various literary awards including the Prémio Ricardo Malheiros, the prizes of the International Association of Literary Critics and of the Cultural Press, and the grand prize of Conto Camilo Castelo Branco.[3]

Urbano Tavares Rodrigues died at the Capuchin Hospital in Lisbon on August 9, 2013.[2]