In 1982, a novel called Memorial do Convento was published in Portugal. A love story set against 18th-century Inquisitorial Lisbon, the novel captured the imagination of many readers, garnering widespread acclaim. Its author, then sixty year old José Saramago, was not known for literature, but for journalism. With this novel, his fourth to be published, Saramago became known throughout Portugal. Six years later, after its translation into English as Baltasar and Blimunda, Saramago’s fame became international.

 

 

Born in 1922 to a peasant family in Azinhaga, a small village northeast of Lisbon, Saramago’s early years were marked by deep poverty. His father moved their family to Lisbon to begin work as a police officer, with Saramago returning to his village during holidays to visit his grandparents. At the age of twelve, Saramago’s parents were no longer able to pay for his grammar school, enrolling him in a technical school instead.  After graduating, Saramago worked first as a car mechanic, then a civil servant, before moving into work as an editor and journalist.

Even though his education was cut short, Saramago nurtured his love of literature through the public library system in Lisbon, which aided him in his career as a journalist and developed his robust knowledge of Portuguese literature and culture. Featured above is the first Portuguese edition of the book which cemented his authorial status, Memorial do Convento. This particular copy is in near fine condition, inscribed by Saramago to noted Portuguese literary critic and essayist Ramiro Texeira.

 

 

With the publication of Baltasar and Blimunda, Saramago swiftly gained international fame. The New York Times Book Review said of the work, “[m]uch reverberates in memory after reading this enchanting novel, but most of all the love story which soars over the rest of the action like a flute above a heavy orchestra. Mr. Saramago, a writer of sharp intelligence, keeps this love story under strict control, free of pathos or sentimentality. It is of, and on, the earth.” Indeed, “Saramago has produced a novel that is deeply imbedded in the history of his land yet moves in mystical realms. It is a romance and an adventure, a rumination on royalty and religion in 18th century Portugal and a bitterly ironic comment on the uses of power” (Walter Goodman, The New York Times).

Though he was not successful as an author until he was sixty, Saramago was constantly reading, writing, and developing his talents as literary critic. His early poetic and fictional works came under renewed interest as he received acclaim, and his career as a writer honed his clarity and power of expression. Saramago’s literary interests are only equaled by his passionate political involvements. Likely due to his childhood poverty, Saramago was a firm communist throughout his adult life. During the Carnation Revolution in the mid-70s, Saramago began expressing his views openly through his work at the newspaper Diário de Notícias, which itself became openly communist.

 

 

Saramago’s political and literary interests were not separated, as is evidenced by his acquaintance with works like Gabriel García Márquez’s The Autumn of the Patriarch, pictured above. A dominant theme of Saramago’s works is a skepticism regarding authority, whether it is governmental institutions or specific individuals who operate them. This first Spanish edition comes from Saramago’s own library, and is signed by both him and Márquez. Both of these authors were recipients of the Nobel Prize in literature, and demonstrated works which gave insight into political power and authority, and the way human nature is shaped by them.

 

 

Alongside his skepticism of human authority, Saramago was deeply skeptical of divine authority. His consistency in his communist principles was coupled with his consistent affirmation of atheism. One of Saramago’s most famous novels, O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo, is also his most controversial. A fictional re-telling of Jesus Christ’s life, depicting him as a flawed, humanized character with passions and doubts, this novel proved controversial, especially to the Roman Catholic Church. Portuguese Catholics were deeply offended by Saramago’s unflattering retelling of the life of Christ, to such an extent that the government censored the work from literary competitions. This Portuguese edition is a true first of the Nobel Prize-winning author’s classic work, signed by him on the title page.

 

 

Dismayed at his country’s censorship, Saramago left Portugal for the Spanish island of Lanzarote, where he remained until his death in 2010. Controversial and committed until the end of his life, Saramago continued to produce literature all his days. In total, Saramago produced over thirty different works, which have been translated into twenty-five different languages, and merited him  the Nobel Prize in Literature, three other literary awards, and three decorations by the Portuguese government.

 

 

Perhaps Saramago’s most popular contemporary work, Blindness was first published in America in 1997 and was described by the L.A. Times as “…the darkest and most concentrated of Saramago’s books.” Based on the thematic structure of Camus’ The Plague, the work remains [a]bounding in the perseverance and hope (and absurdity and horror) of everyday lives, Blindness is of the ages: profound by being elemental. It’s a major contribution to Saramago’s oeuvre” (The Houston Chronicle). It was to film and was directed by Fernando Meirelles and starred Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.

 

 

In addition to the titles featured above, our collection includes the first American edition of Saramago’s second book to be translated into English, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis. View the complete collection of the works of Jose Saramago currently in our collection here.