Júlio Dantas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Júlio Dantas (Lagos, 1876 - Lisboa, 1962) was a Portuguese doctor, poet, journalist, politician diplomat and dramatist.
The son of an officer, he studied at Lisbon's Colégio Militar, and later Medicine at the University of Lisbon.
He published his first article in 1893; he was later a doctor in the Portuguese Army, president of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, Minister of Education, Minister of Foreign Affairs (1922-1923) and ambassador to Brazil (1941-1949).
In his time, he was famous for his historical works (both theatre plays and novels). Most popular was the The Cardinals' Supper (A Ceia dos Cardeais). His work A Severa was made into the first Portuguese sound film in 1931.
For the younger generations, he is however most famous for being the target of Almada Negreiros' Anti-Dantas Manifest (Manifesto Anti-Dantas), a violent and hilarious personal attack (Dantas might know grammar, might know syntax, might know medicine, might know how to cook suppers for cardinals, he might know everything except to write which is the only thing he does).
