Manuel Maria Rodrigues(1847-1899)
- Writer
He worked in a newspaper printing house, until he graduated journalist
of Comércio do Porto, a large daily paper in the North of Portugal.
When he was 20, he had already written five novels, among which "A Rosa
do Adro", first published in 1870. He would also wrote librettos for a
few operettas, among which "Na Lua" (on the moon). His hobby was
amateur archeology. He remained obscure all his life, slightly put down
by literary critics. He never knew his "Rosa do Adro" would be
re-written for the stage in 1899, and brought to the movies with
enormous popular success, starting with A Rosa do Adro (1919). Immediately after this
film had been shown in Oporto and then Lisbon, the book went to press
in its 24th edition, with a cover based on a big picture of beautiful
Maria de Oliveira as Rosa do Adro. The book kept being reimpressed and re-edited
through the 20th century, by the thousands and thousands, and is one of
the top literary sales of the 20th century in Portugal, except for
books of mandatory reading in high-schools.
