José de Sousa Saramago was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Background
José Saramago was born on November 16, 1922 in Azinhaga, Santarem, Portugal, into a family of landless peasants. His parents were José de Sousa and Maria de Piedade. "Saramago", the Portuguese word for wild radish, was his father's family's nickname, and was accidentally incorporated into his name upon registration of his birth.
In 1924, Saramago's family moved to Lisbon, where his father started working as a policeman. A few months after the family moved to the capital, his brother Francisco, older by two years, died. He spent vacations with his grandparents in Azinhaga.
Education
Saramago was a good pupil, but his parents were unable to afford to keep him in grammar school, and instead moved him to a technical school at age 12.
Career
After graduating, he worked as a car mechanic for two years. Later he worked as a translator, then as a journalist. He was assistant editor of the newspaper Diário de Notícias, a position he had to leave after the democratic revolution in 1974. After a period of working as a translator he was able to support himself solely as a writer.
Saramago did not achieve widespread recognition and acclaim until he was sixty, with the publication of his fourth novel, "Memorial do Convento."
Achievements
The Swedish Academy selected Saramago as 1998 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel committee praised his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony", and his "modern skepticism" about official truths.
Saramago was an atheist. The Catholic Church criticised him on numerous occasions due to the content of some of his novels, mainly The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and Cain, in which he uses satire and biblical quotations to present the figure of God in a comical way.
Politics
Saramago joined the Portuguese Communist Party in 1969 and remained a member until the end of his life.
Views
José was a self-confessed pessimist. His views aroused considerable controversy in Portugal.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
...the finest Portuguese writer of his generation.
Connections
Saramago married Ilda Reis in 1944. Their only daughter, Violante, was born in 1947. In 1986 he met Spanish journalist Pilar del Río. They married in 1988 and remained together until his death in June 2010.
