Câmara Lima

Câmara Lima, an Azorean journalist and playwright, used the pseudonym J. David Airada. He completed his high school studies in Angra do Heroísmo and at 15, moved to the mainland, where, for thirty years (1886-1916), he was a Post Office official and, until the end of his life, a newspaper columnist. He married D. Maria de Mesquita, from the Terceiran literary society and a blood relative of the journalist Alfredo de Mesquita and the poets Carlos and Roberto de Mesquita, with whom he was friends. His daughter Marta de Mesquita da Câmara also dedicated herself to journalism (at O Primeiro de Janeiro) and made a name for herself in Porto's literary circles as a poetess. He professed monarchist ideas and supported João Franco's dictatorship. After the establishment of the Republic, some of his chronicles targeted society and political customs under the new regime, but without bitterness. Indeed, customs (political, social, moral) were generally the main target of his criticism, although after Sidónio Pais's consulate, he considered his «last phase as a militant journalist» to be over. He was, above all, a humorist, both in his newspaper columns and in the comedies and annual reviews he wrote alone or in partnership: a humorist whose «writing», in Antero de Figueiredo's words, «[could] enter royal palaces and family evenings», such were his «good literary manners» and the «imperceptible care he [took] not to laugh out loud». Towards the end of his life, however, his humor became more skeptical than critical. In a letter dated 25-V-1898 to Justino de Montalvão, António Nobre refers to a «long and bizarre article» by Câmara Lima concerning the 2ª. edition of Só, in Jornal do Comércio of 5-V of the same year.