Childhood & Adolescence

A compilation of loose notes that tell the story of the childhood and youth of Delmira Maçãs, a benefactor of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, vivid accounts written in the first person. In this first volume of the collection titled Biographical Notes – Steps to Death, Delmira Maçãs narrates the experiences of a reserved childhood in Portalegre, the move to Lisbon towards the Faculty of Arts, where she would complete her degree in Linguistics in 1954, and the dilemmas of choosing a professional activity. In this narrative path, the author shares with the reader her unique perspective on Portugal of the time, in an unmistakably shrewd and ironic tone. These writings unveil Delmira Maçãs, a complex and contradictory personality who found in the blank pages her most stimulating confidant. It was on paper that she meticulously recorded the daily life, as well as the anguishes felt from dawn to dusk of existence, a profound reflection scattered in numerous texts that she methodically kept throughout her life. The books of Delmira Maçãs were published by Santa Casa in 2009, in fulfillment of the testamentary charge stipulated by the benefactor to the Misericórdia de Lisboa, the institution she chose as her heir: the publication of her personal writings, of an autobiographical nature, but also of a religious and literary character. This is a set of 16 volumes, organized into three collections: Biographical Notes – Steps to Death, Dialogue with the Gospels, and Miscellany.

Author: Delmira Maçãs
Collection: Biographical Notes. Steps to Death

Year of publication: 2009
ISBN: 9789728761523