Murilo Mendes life and work

Murilo Mendes
Source: MMM.

Short biography

Murilo Medeiros Mendes (Born in 1901, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil - Died in 1975, Lisbon, Portugal) was a poet, writer, civil servant, and teacher.

He lost his mother when he was one year old and was raised by his stepmother.

At 10, Murilo saw the Comet Halley in the night sky. The comet, he used to say, seduced him into poetry and literature.

From 1915 on, he went through turbulent secondary years, running away from lessons, moving schools, and quitting courses. Murilo ended up at a boarding school in Niterói, state of Rio de Janeiro. He was seen as a troublesome family member, and they tried to find him employment as a telegraphist, a pharmacist assistant, a bookkeeper, a notary clerk, and a French teacher.

In 1918, he began writing for a local newspaper from Juiz de Fora. Later on in life, Murilo would regularly collaborate with many other newspapers and magazines. Invited by his brother, he moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1920, working as an archivist at the Ministry of Finance. He was then introduced to literature and art intellectual circles in Rio.

His first book was published in 1930. He progressed with his career at the civil service. Shortly after being appointed as education inspector in 1936, he was designated secretary of the National Commission for Children's Literature.

When Salzburg was taken by the Germans in 1939, Murilo telegraphed Hitler to protest.

His father died of tuberculosis in 1943, and he remained under treatment for six months. Married in 1947, he would leave the country a decade later, hired by Itamarati as a lecturer of Brazilian Culture at the Universities of Rome and Pisa in Italy.

Murilo died of a sudden cardiac arrest in 1975.

List of poetry books

Poemas (1930), História do Brasil (1932), Tempo e Eternidade (1935), A Poesia em Pânico (1937), O Visionário (1941), As Metamorfoses (1944), O Discípulo de Emaús (1944), Mundo Enigma (1945), Poesia Liberdade (1947), Contemplação de Ouro Preto (1954), Poesias (1959), Tempo Espanhol (1959), Antologia Poética (1964), Convergência (1970), Poliedro (1972), Retratos-relâmpago (1973), Marrakech (1974).

Original from: Museu Murilo Mendes
Translated and edited by: crroma