António Botto
| António Botto | |
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António Botto, 1940s
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| Born | António Thomaz Botto August 17, 1897 Concavada, Portugal |
| Died | March 16, 1959 (aged 61) Rio de Janeiro, Brasil |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | Portuguese |
| Period | 1917-1955 |
| Genre | Lyricism |
| Notable works |
Canções Os Contos de António Botto para Crianças e Adultos |
| Spouse | Carminda da Conceição Silva Rodrigues (?-1959) |
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António Botto (Concavada, Portugal, August 17, 1897 – Rio de Janeiro, March 16, 1959) was a Portuguese aesthete and lyricist poet.
António Thomaz Botto was born 17 August 1897 at 8:00 a.m. to Maria Pires Agudo and Francisco Thomaz Botto, in Concavada, near Abrantes, the couple's second son. His father earned his living as a in the Tagus. In 1902 the family moved to Rua da Adiça, 22, 3rd floor, in the Alfama quarter in Lisbon (where a third and last son would be born). Botto grew up in the typical and popular atmosphere of that neighbourhood. Very old shabby houses, stretched up in steepy narrow streets, the ambiance was one of poverty and somewhat promiscuous. Small shops, small taverns where fado was sung late in the night. The dirty streets crowded with workers, housewives shopping, vendors, beggars, tramps, kids playing, pimps, prostitutes and sailors, which would deeply influence his work.
Botto was poorly educated and since youth he took to a series of menial jobs, among them that of a book-shop clerk. Probably his education came from reading the books he lay hands on during his daily work. He also got acquainted with many of Lisbon's men of letters due to his job. In his mid-twenties he got into civil service as a modest administrative clerk in several State offices. In 1924–25 he worked in Santo António do Zaire and Luanda, Angola, returning to Lisbon in 1925, where he stayed the remaining years as a civil servant up to 1942.
His first book of poems Trovas was published in 1917. It was followed by Cantigas de Saudade (1918), Cantares (1919) and Canções do Sul (1920). Canções (Songs) was published in 1921 and went unnoticed. Only after Fernando Pessoa published its 2nd edition, through his publishing house "Olisipo", emerged a public scandal amongst the Lisbon society which granted Botto a lifelong notoriety: the author dared to wrote about same-sex love and in a very nonchalant and romantic way. Besides that, it featured a photograph of Botto in a camp, languid pose showing his bare shoulders.
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