João Pedro da Silva Tavares

Poet, fiction writer, and playwright. After completing his secondary studies in Carvalhos, Gaia, he emigrated to Pará, Brazil, in 1898 due to economic difficulties. After some years, he returned to Lisbon, where he settled as head of the secretariat at the former Companhias Reunidas de Gás e Electricidade. His first poetic work, Brados da Mocidade, had been written even before he emigrated and when he was only seventeen years old, although it was only printed in 1903, after his return from Brazil. Although some of his poetic works reflect his birth and youthful experiences in Beira Ria, the dominant characteristic in everything he wrote is a romantic patriotism somewhat out of its historical time. As a playwright, only the play Duelo de Amor, performed at the Teatro Nacional de Lisboa around 1920, is known. He used the pseudonym Ruy do Vouga.