by Vitorino Nemésio

Vitorino Nemésio was born in the Azores in 1901 in the town of Praia da Vitória, Terceira Island. While still in high school he spent a few years on a different island, Faial, an experience that would influence his future writing. He later attended the universities of Coimbra and Lisbon on the Portuguese mainland, and spent the better part of his teaching career at the University of Lisbon. The experience of immigrating to the mainland impacted him deeply, exerting a strong influence on his reflection about the Azorean islands, which soon became a constant subject in his conversations, lectures, and writings. Nearly every summer he would make the trip by boat back to the Azores so that he might vacation on his home island of Terceira. He wrote about the islands in short...