Faria e Maia

Azorean writer, brother of Vicente Machado, Francisco Machado, and António Cardoso de Faria e Maia, mentioned elsewhere in this Dictionary. In 1861, he began Law studies in Coimbra, where he associated with the intellectual youth, partly also from the Azores (Teófilo Braga, Manuel de Arriaga, Alberto Teles, and others), who were already gathering around Antero de Quental. With him, he later maintained friendly and epistolary relations for the rest of his life and wrote some «Memórias» about him (published in In Memoriam, 1896), which contain an important collection of data for the poet's biography. He traveled frequently between the mainland and the island and was temporarily in Brazil, where he even considered settling. «Verse and prose, science and art, all forms and all subjects were familiar to him,» as stated in a publication dedicated to the Azores, released in fascicles at the beginning of this century (Álbum Açoriano, directed by António Baptista, Lisbon 1903/1909). Antero de Quental, in turn, found in him «rare qualities as a writer» and a «strange variety [of] aptitudes, as a man of the world and of action, as a poet and prose writer, sometimes serious, sometimes humorous» (letter of 20-3-1890). He published Cartas de Antero de Quental (in which the aforementioned «Memórias» are reproduced, with some alterations), Coimbra, 1915, and also other pamphlets and articles he left scattered in the periodical press. Among these, we highlight: «Casa Branca e Santa Eulália. Notas de uma viagem ao Brasil», in Revista Portuguesa, nos. 2 and 3, Porto, 1895; «Notas metafísicas», in O Preto no Branco, no. 21, Ponta Delgada, 1896; «A democracia», in Álbum Açoriano, Lisbon, 1903/1909. He is also the author of a genealogical work titled Memórias da Casa da Arquinha, whose publication we have seen mentioned, but which we presume to be still unpublished.