Ana Vicente
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ana Vicente | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Ana Maria Lowndes Marques 8 February 1943 |
| Died | 19 April 2015 (aged 72) |
| Occupations | Author, feminist |
| Known for | Historical and feminist writing |
Ana Vicente (1943 – 2015) was an Anglo-Portuguese writer with a strong Catholic faith, known for her support for feminist causes.
Ana Maria Lowndes Marques Vicente was born in Lisbon on 8 February 1943. She was the daughter of the English writer and journalist Susan Lowndes Marques and the Portuguese journalist Luiz de Oliveira Marques, who jointly published the English-language Anglo-Portuguese News, and about whom she wrote in Arcádia - Notícia de uma Família Anglo-Portuguesa. On her mother's side she was a member of a distinguished line of authors and feminists. One great-grandmother was Bessie Rayner Parkes, a prominent British feminist and champion of women's suffrage. Another was Louise Swanton Belloc, a French writer and translator known for introducing important works of English literature to France and for promoting women's education. Her grandmother, Marie Belloc Lowndes, was a well-known writer of crime novels and biographies, best known for her novel, The Lodger, based on Jack the Ripper, which sold over a million copies and was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1926. Her great uncle was the poet and novelist Hilaire Belloc.[1][2]
Early life
Vicente was born at the English hospital in Lisbon. She lived in Lisbon until 1947 when her parents moved to Monte Estoril. For a time, she attended Portuguese-language primary schools before transferring to the English-language St. Julian's School, at which her mother would become a member of the Board of Governors and her brother, Paulo Lowndes Marques, would serve as Chairman of the Annual General Meeting. She also had a younger sister, Antonia Marques Leitão. In her youth she was a member of Catholic Action and, being classified as a Portuguese member of the school, had to join the Mocidade Portuguesa Feminina, a youth movement established by the right-wing Estado Novo government. She also spent two years at a Catholic boarding school in England that had been one of those founded by the nun, Mary Ward (1585 – 1645), to provide an education to poor children.[2][3]
Vicente graduated from university with a degree in Religion, which qualified her to teach religion, and subsequently obtained a degree in Modern Languages and Portuguese and English Literature from the University of Lisbon. She was a founder-member of the Pragma Cooperative, a Catholic organization opposed to the Estado Novo, and in April 1967, was arrested by the PIDE (International and State Defence Police) and held for three days in Caxias prison near Lisbon. Pragma was subsequently dissolved.[3][4]
