Joaquim Paço d'Arcos

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Joaquim Paço d'Arcos , actually Joaquim Belford Correa da Silva Paço de Arcos , (born June 14, 1908 in Lisbon ; † June 10, 1979 ibid) was a Portuguese writer. As an author, he was mainly active as a novelist . His work is regarded as an important oeuvre of neo-realistic character based on his model Eça de Queirós and tried to depict the abysses of the contemporary Lisbon bourgeoisie. He wrote a cycle of novels about it . But he was also a poet, playwright, storyteller, essayist and biographer.

Paço d'Arcos is one of the most translated authors in Portugal in the twentieth century. A translation into German has not yet taken place. Even more so in Italian, French, Spanish and English. He published around 50 books throughout his life. A work on Winston Churchill , translated into English, made him famous in the United Kingdom.

Even before he became known to the public as a man of letters, he was a prominent figure because from 1936 to 1960 he was the press spokesman for the then Foreign Ministry, which was dominated by Salazarists. He was also head of the Trans-Zambezi Railway for a number of years .

Life

Joaquim Paço d'Arcos was born into an aristocratic, upper-class family. His father was a high officer in the Portuguese Navy and worked several times in offices of the colonial governments of various Portuguese colonies , which meant that Joaquim traveled a lot from an early age and got a good impression of Africa, some of which later flowed into his work. The importance of the family within the aristocracy of Portugal became apparent because he was the grandson of the first Conde (Count) of Paço de Arcos, although he himself never carried the title of Count (this was his older brother, the 2nd Reserved for Conde de Paço de Arcos, for reasons that cannot be explained to this day his father was not a Conde).

Due to the lack of a title, he took it as his stage name, hence Paço de Arcos, with a slight change.

At the age of four he lived with his family in Angola , from eleven in Macau until he was 14, which also brought him to visit Hong Kong and southern China. From 1925 to 1927 the family lived in Mozambique .

After completing his studies, he moved to São Paulo , where he initially worked as an antiquarian from 1928 to 1930 before working as a journalist for various newspapers and magazines. In 1931, during a short stay in France , he wrote his first book, the novel Heroi Derradenio , which was published in 1933. In Africa he had been one of the directors of the Trans-Zambezi Railway before he followed the call to politics in 1936: four years after the fascists came to power under Professor António de Oliveira Salazar , Paço d'Arcos finally became press spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Portugal and This remained until 1960. This position alone made him known in Portugal and abroad he was occasionally mentioned, which had to be officially announced for the world press. He spent the last years of his life as a man of letters in Lisbon, writing books, from which he could live well.

He was a member of the Academia Brasileira de Letras and the Societe des Gens de Lettres de France. He was also president of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores for some time.

A street in Lisbon is named after the author, and in the city of Paço de Arcos there is even a primary school.

Joaquim Paço d'Arcos died on June 10, 1979 in his hometown of Lisbon.

The work of d'Arcos

Numerous translations were carried out mainly into Italian, Spanish, French and English as well as US-American. No books have yet been translated into German.

He was a representative of Portuguese neorealism, whose model was the legendary Eça de Queirós, the founder of realism in Portugal. In his work he often reflected the abysses of the Portuguese bourgeoisie of his time. The fascist dictatorship waved his works through anyway, because he was part of the political scene himself, they wanted to take the wind out of the sails of critics from abroad and show that the upper class could also be susceptible to bad behavior and sins, which in turn was in moral appeals to conscience and morality ended. The “fallen” of the upper class were often cited as bad, unimaginable examples or as mentally ill, which in turn led to the fascist state feeling confirmed in its view of the world. The famous Cronica da Vida Lisboeta (Chronicle of Lisbon Life) filled six volumes . With that he became more or less a cultural handyman and accomplice of Portuguese fascism. His work covered questions of politics, religion, social and cultural problems. This cycle included the following novels: Ana Paula (1938), Anziedade (1940), O caminho da culpa (1944), Tons verdes em fundo escura (1946), Espelho de tres frases (1950) and A corça prisoneira (1958).

In the work Memorias duma nota de banco (1962, memories of a banknote) he even allows an escudo note to reach Germany , the hands of the SS , and carried by an SS leader Wilhelm in his wallet as solidarity to the fascist brother state Portugal, who falls in a skirmish . The note had previously belonged to a Jewish family who died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp . Although the story is made up, it shows how much an author living far from Germany knew about the Holocaust . As a fascist, however, he made a distinction in his work between enemies, whom he saw exclusively as politically different, and from minorities, such as Jews, who are sometimes treated quite normally in his work or even get off quite well, as the short story Neve sobre o mar (snow over the sea) shows stories of six different women from all over Europe who fled to the USA, including a survivor of the Holocaust, whom he conciliatory tells about her suffering and in it - indirectly - rejects the Holocaust.

As an essayistic biographer, he created works on well-known personalities. He wrote a biography about Winston Churchill, which was also highly regarded in Great Britain, but also about the poet Guilherme de Faria , Carlos Malheiro Dias , Eça de Queiros and the South African poet Roy Campbell .

Work (selection)

  • Heroi Derradenio, 1933, novel.
  • Ana Paula, 1938, novel.
  • Anziedade, 1940, novel.
  • Neve sobre o mar (Snow over the Sea), short stories, 1942.
  • O caminho da culpa, 1944, novel.
  • Tons verdes em fundo escura, 1946, novel.
  • Espelho de tres frases, 1950, novel.
  • Poemas imperfeitas (Unfinished Poems), Poetry, 1952.
  • Churchill. A estadista eo escritor, (Churchill. The statesman and the writer), 1955. Biographical study. Translation into English: 1957 by The caravel Press.
  • A corca prisoneira, 1958, novel.
  • Memorias duma nota de banco (Memories of a banknote), novel, 1962.
  • Os melhores contos, (The best short stories), Short stories, 1963.
  • Destino e obra do poeta Guilherme de Faria, 1970. (Goal and work of the poet Guilherme de Faria). Biographical study.

Awards (selection)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Paço d'Arcos, Joaquim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Correa da Silva Paço de Arcos, Joaquim Belford
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Lisbon
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1979
Place of death Lisbon