1. Hilda de Almeida Prado Hilst was a Brazilian poet, novelist, and playwright.
29 Facts About Hilda Hilst
1. 2.
Hilda Hilst's works were mostly not well known outside of her home country until after her death, when several of her books were translated to English.
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Hilda de Almeida Prado Hilst was the only daughter of Apolonio de Almeida Prado Hilst and Bedecilda Vaz Cardoso.
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Hilda Hilst's father owned a coffee plantation and worked as a journalist, poet, and essayist.
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Hilda Hilst's mother came from a conservative Portuguese immigrant family.
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The conditions of her parents' mental health greatly influenced Hilda Hilst's writing, and her books describe several experiences she had with her father.
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Hilda Hilst's parents separated in 1932 while she was still an infant, and three years later her father received the diagnosis of schizophrenia and thereafter spent much of his life in mental institutions.
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Hilda Hilst's mother was institutionalized at the end of her life, in the same institution as her husband.
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Hilda Hilst grew up in Jau, a town in the state of Sao Paulo, with her mother and half brother from her mother's previous marriage.
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Hilda Hilst attended elementary and high school at Collegia Santa Marcelina in Sao Paulo before enrolling in a bachelor's degree program at Mackenzie Presbyterian University.
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Hilda Hilst published her first book of poetry in 1950, Omen, which received great acclaim from her contemporaries like Jorge de Lima and Cecilia Meireles.
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That same year Hilda Hilst took over guardianship of her father.
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Later in 1957, Hilda Hilst began her seven-month tour of Europe, traveling through France, Italy and Greece.
14.
Hilda Hilst asked him about his thoughts on Franz Kafka's works, to which he dismissively replied, "I won't think about Mr Kafka".
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However, after reading Nikos Kazantzakis' Report to Greco, and being influenced by its themes of self-isolation to achieve knowledge of the human being, Hilda Hilst decided to leave Sao Paulo in 1964 and return to her childhood home in Campinas.
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Hilda Hilst ordered the construction of a new house on the same property, nicknamed the House of the Sun, which she personally designed to be an artistic space for inspiration and creativity.
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At the House of the Sun, Hilda Hilst was particularly prolific as she started writing her first theater works, completing nine plays and one poetry compilation between 1967 and 1969.
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Hilda Hilst lived somewhat secluded in Campinas for the rest of her life, accompanied by other artists.
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Hilda Hilst later held other teaching positions at the university.
20.
Hilda Hilst published Lori Lamby's Pink Notebook in 1990, the first book of a pornographic tetralogy.
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Hilda Hilst announced her "goodbye to serious literature" in the 1990s because she was "irritated by the meager reaching of her writing".
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Hilda Hilst stopped writing in the same year, telling an interviewer that she had said everything she wanted to say.
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Hilda Hilst died on 4 February 2004, in Campinas at the age of 73.
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Hilda Hilst wrote for almost 50 years, publishing forty books over her lifetime.
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Hilda Hilst has been highly referenced in books, magazines, academic journals, and others.
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Hilda Hilst explored theological issues in her work as well, particularly regarding God and the "search of the divine".
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Hilda Hilst was greatly influenced by the works of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, whom she greatly revered.
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In 1981, Hilda Hilst won the, by the same association.
29.
Some of Hilda Hilst's texts have been translated from Brazilian Portuguese to French, English, Italian and German.