Brazilian poet, born in Cruz do Espírito Santo, in the State of Paraíba, on April 20, 1884, and died in Leopoldina (MG) on November 12, 1914, Augusto dos Anjos was an author of a single book of poems, us ( 1912), who went unnoticed by critics and writers of his time, is now considered one of the greatest poets of the Portuguese language of all times.
In 1900, at the age of sixteen, he went to study Literature at the Liceu Paraibano, which greatly expanded his knowledge and became known as a poet, graduated in Law and taught at the high school where he had studied. He contributed to periodicals with his poems.
It is worth mentioning that his poetic work, consisting only of a book of poems, does not fit into any literary school, although it was influenced by aspects of Naturalism and Symbolism, the unique writing of Augusto dos Anjos cannot be framed in any of these movements. . And that is why the poet is classified together with his contemporaries of Pre-Modernism.
Mixing philosophical terms steeped in total pessimism and scientific vocabulary, which would rarely be found in poetic texts, Augusto dos Anjos wrote a strong, visceral poetry, centered on a universal anguish, for an immortal funereal memory. Pessimistic, cosmic, paradoxical, morbid and distressing, the poetry of Augusto dos Anjos is written with a scientific vocabulary mixed with a deep sadness.
Five years after his death, the second edition of his only collection of poetry was released, enriched with some unpublished poems and presented under the title of Eu e outros poemas (Paraíba: official publisher, 1919). This volume had been headed by a rich preface by Órris Soares who, for the first time in the history of Brazilian literary criticism, highlighted the real value of the work of Augusto dos Anjos. This appeal led to a remarkable increase in the number of American readers, which in turn gave rise to the reprinting of Soares' edition in 1920.
Finally, in 1928, a third edition appeared, also entitled Poesia Eu e Outros (Rio de Janeiro: Castilho, 1928), with a preface by Antonio Torres, achieving great success with critics and readers. From then on, Augusto Anjos was definitively consecrated as one of the great masters of contemporary poetry.