under the «Estado Novo» repressive regime led him five times to prison, between 1938 and 1962. He ended his medical studies in 1946 at Lisbon University where he had participated to the «MUD Juvenil» Central Commission. He organized the First Republican Congress in 1957. In 1961, he graduated in gastroenterology, in Paris. He took part in many political and literary demonstrations, and in two conferences on childhood. His first essay, Eça de Queirós, uma Estética da Ironia (1945) was awarded the Oliveira Martins prize. Other essays such as Fernando Pessoa, Poeta da Hora Absurda (1959), Fernando Namora, a Obra e o Homem (1967), Há uma Estética Neo-Realista? (1968) have punctuated his life. We have gathered according to themes his three prefaces and his articles gathered within the three books Ensaios de Domingo (1959,1974, 1990) which raised him to the rank of Neo-Realism theorist, as well as articles about his dialogue with Catholics (1967-1969) where he affirms his humanistic convictions and open-mindedness in Frátria, Diálogo com os Católicos (1971). The fourth part presents the essayist's personal creation in the form of a DIARY (1975) written between 1967 and 1969, where he recollects his life, five plays, poems, moral tales and unpublished stories. The second volume contains appendixes. 1920 births 1969 deaths People from Ílhavo Portuguese male writers Portuguese Communist Party politicians Portuguese anti-fascists University of Paris alumni 20th-century Portuguese writers