Haroldo de Campos

Short Biography

Haroldo de Campos (19 August 1929, São Paulo – 16 August 2003, São Paulo) was a Brazilian poet, critic, professor and translator. He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in Brazilian Literature since 1950. He did his secondary education at the Colégio São Bento, where he learned his first foreign languages (Latin, English, Spanish, French). He and his brother Augusto de Campos, together with Décio Pignatari, formed the poetic group Noigandres that published the experimental journal of the same name, which would launch the Brazilian movement of poesia concreta (concrete poetry). Haroldo received his doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences of USP (Universidade de São Paulo), under the guidance of Antonio Candido. Haroldo was professor at the Catholic University, PUC-SP, and visiting professor at Yale and the University of Texas at Austin. His biography was included in the Encyclopædia Britannica in 1997 and he was awarded the Premio Octavio Paz de Poesia y Ensayo, Mexico, in 1999.