João H. Anglin

An Azorean poet, pedagogue, and translator, full name João Hickling Anglin. He attended the Faculty of Letters at the University of Coimbra (1912-1917) and served in the military in the same city starting in 1915. After graduating in Germanic Philology (1917), he left on a mission to Southern Angola as a militia officer, remaining there for two years. Upon returning to mainland Portugal, he was placed on reserve and prepared for secondary school teaching at the Escola Normal Superior de Coimbra (1919-1921). He then taught at the Liceu de Ponta Delgada until retirement age (1921-1964), serving as rector from 1926 to 1935 and from 1939 to 1964. He was also a teacher at the Primary Teacher Training School in that city and its director from 1943. He was part of the founding members of the Instituto Cultural de Ponta Delgada and succeeded Humberto de Bettencourt as president of that association in 1955, a position he held until his death. He sporadically cultivated poetry but was not an inspired poet: he wrote verses correctly, but in plain and unstylistic language. In prose, he only wrote school addresses and some articles on historical and literary figures. What stood out and is truly important in his literary activity are his translations from English (mainly) and German, among which Um Inverno nos Açores e Um Verão no Vale das Furnas, by Joseph and Henry Bullar, Ponta Delgada, 1940 (2nd ed., 1986), holds the first place.