Alberto da Costa e Silva

Alberto da Costa e Silva
File:Alberto-da-costa-e-silva.jpg
Born	(1931-05-12)12 May 1931 São Paulo, Brazil
Died	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Nationality	Brazilian
Occupation	Historian, poet, former diplomat

Alberto Vasconcellos da Costa e Silva GCC GCSE GCIH (12 May 1931 – 26 November 2023) was a Brazilian diplomat, poet, essayist, memoirist and historian, member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and speaker at the Historical and Geographical Institute. He was awarded the Camões Prize in 2014.

Biography

Alberto da Costa e Silva was born in São Paulo, the son of the poet Antônio Francisco da Costa e Silva and Creusa Fontenelle de Vasconcellos da Costa e Silva. He attended primary school and started secondary school at Farias Brito College in Fortaleza. In 1943, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he attended Externato São José and Instituto Lafayette. Graduated from the Rio Branco Institute in 1957, Alberto da Costa e Silva served as a diplomat in Lisbon, Caracas, Washington, Madrid and Rome, before becoming ambassador in Lagos, Nigeria (1979–83) and cumulatively in Cotonou, Benin (1981–83), Lisbon, Portugal (1986–90), Bogotá, Colombia (1990–93) and Asunción, Paraguay (1993–95).

He was elected to chair 9 of the Brazilian Academy of Letters on July 27, 2000. He was president from 2002 to 2003. da Costa e Silva was also a corresponding member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.

In 2004 he was chosen by the Brazilian Writers' Union (UBE) and Folha de São Paulo as the "Intellectual of the Year" (Juca Pato Prize).

He was married to Vera Queiroz da Costa e Silva, an award-winning translator of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart into Portuguese.

In 2014 he was awarded the Camões Prize for his entire body of work.

Alberto da Costa e Silva died at the age of 92, in Rio de Janeiro.

Works

History

• A Enxada e a Lança: a África antes dos Portugueses (1992; 1996; 2006)
• As Relações entre o Brasil e a África Negra, de 1822 à 1a Guerra Mundial (1996)
• A Manilha e o Libambo: A África e a Escravidão, de 1500 a 1700 (2002; 2004)
• Um Rio Chamado Atlântico: A África no Brasil e o Brasil na África (2003; 2005)
• Francisco Félix de Sousa, Mercador de Escravos (2004)
• Das mãos do oleiro (2005)
• Imagens da África: da Antiguidade ao Século XIX (2012; editor)

Essays

• O vício da África e outros vícios (1989)
• Guimarães Rosa, poeta (1992)
• Mestre Dezinho de Valença do Piauí (1999)
• O Pardal na Janela (2002)
• Castro Alves: um poeta sempre jovem (2006; 2008)
• O quadrado amarelo (2009)

Memoirs

• Espelho do Príncipe (1994)
• Invenção do Desenho (2007)

Poetry

• O parque e outros poemas (1953)
• O tecelão (1962)
• Alberto da Costa e Silva carda, fia, doba e tece (1962)
• Livro de linhagem (1966)
• As linhas da mão (1978)
• A roupa no estendal, o muro, os pombos (1981)
• Consoada (1993)
• Ao lado de Vera (1997)
• Poemas Reunidos (2000)
• Melhores poemas de Alberto da Costa e Silva (2007; selected by André Seffrin)

External links

• Alberto da Costa e Silva