Marcos Algarve

Fiction writer and poet. Francisco Marques da Luz, his civil name, attended primary school between the ages of six and nine, his only official qualifications, as he began working in trade very early, moving while still young to Cabinda, Angola, where he remained for several years in the service of an English company. Returning to Portugal, he settled in Portimão, where he lived until 1958. He brought with him republican ideals, of which he was the main campaigner throughout the Algarve. Once the Republic was proclaimed, he served as mayor of the Municipal Council of Portimão and later as administrator of that municipality. He began his literary activity while still living in Africa, as a contributor to Almanaque de Lembranças, a collaboration he maintained for thirty-three years. He contributed to Lisbon republican newspapers O Mundo and A Vanguarda and the Faro weekly Correio do Sul. He was also the literary editor of Almanaque do Algarve Ilustrado para 1903 e 1904 (1902, 1903). In 1924, he caused a scandal with the publication of a book, Amor à Francesa: Contos do Natural, whose characters, prominent figures in Algarve life, were easily identifiable. In the controversy that followed, one of the main targets, Dr. Francisco Fernandes Lopes, stood out. Along the same lines, the author offended again in 1926 with Mistérios da Praia da Rocha, a work that no longer caused the scandal and controversy of the previous one. These works of fiction were followed by a heated journalistic controversy with film director Armando de Miranda, which would ultimately earn a small book by this filmmaker, also from the Algarve, titled Desmascarado!: Autópsia a um... escritor (1927).