Armando da Silva

Azorean journalist. Self-taught, he did not pursue studies beyond primary school, but acquired «vast culture [...] reading and studying with philosophical curiosity everything new that emerged in the arts, sciences, and letters» (from his obituary in Novidades of November 17, 1910). At 14, he published his first prose pieces in local and continental periodicals, and at 15, he founded his first newspaper, O Vigilante, a «political, literary, and news weekly, dedicated to the Povo.» In 1888, he was in Lisbon as an editor for Comércio de Portugal, but shortly after returned to Ponta Delgada to direct O Correio Micaelense (1889-1894). In this city, he founded, with journalist Pereira de Lacerda and poets Rodrigo Rodrigues and Humberto de Bettencourt, the 'nefelibata' (cloud-walker) magazine Exoterismos (1894). Back in Lisbon, he worked for several newspapers, such as Tempo, Novidades (where he was editorial secretary), Economista Português, and Jornal de Lisboa (as director for the latter two). He served as secretary to the Minister of Public Works, Carlos Lobo de Ávila, and finally, as director of the Vasco da Gama Aquarium in Algés. In this last role, he dedicated himself to the study of ichthyology and wrote 2 vols. on the subject: Explorações Submarinas and Moluscos. He succumbed to mesenteric tuberculosis before turning 40. Besides being a journalist, Armando da Silva also dedicated himself to mythography and, occasionally, to literary criticism. In the field of mythography, he mainly studied Azorean folklore, and as a literary critic, he maintained the opinion that «Azorean writers should, first and foremost, strive to constitute a typical and characteristic Azorean Literature» (cf. the preface to A Bruxa by Augusto Loureiro).