Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1919, to a wealthy aristocratic family. She had Danish ancestry on her father’s side, and her grandfather owned a botanical garden in Porto. She studied classical philology at the University of Lisbon, but did not finish her degree. She was involved in Catholic university movements and collaborated with the magazine “Cadernos de Poesia”. She married Francisco Sousa Tavares, a journalist, politician and lawyer, in 1946, and had five children. She wrote poetry, children’s books, short stories, essays and translations. She was influenced by Greek mythology, Christian mysticism, and social and political issues. She was a vocal critic of the dictatorship of Salazar and a supporter of democracy and human rights. She was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1975, after the Carnation Revolution. She was the first woman to receive the Camões Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the Portuguese language, in 1999. She also received other honors, such as the Queen Sofia Prize, the Dante Alighieri Prize, and the Max Jacob Prize. She was a member of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon and an honorary doctor of several universities. She died in Lisbon, in 2004, of heart failure. Her remains were transferred to the National Pantheon in 2014. She is considered one of the most important and influential Portuguese poets of the 20th century.