Auta de Souza

Auta de Souza (12 September 1876 — 7 February 1901) was a Brazilian poet. She wrote Romantic poems, with some Symbolistic influence.

Souza published only one book in her lifetime, Horto. Folklorist Luís da Câmara Cascudo deemed her the greatest mystical poet in Brazil.

Life Souza was born in Macaíba, daughter of Elói Castriciano de Souza and Henriqueta Leopoldina Rodrigues.

She became an orphan when she was three, with her mother's death by tuberculosis; her father died of the same disease the next year. Souza was then raised by her maternal grandmother Between 1899 and 1900, she signed his poems under the pseudonyms "Ida Salúcio" and "Hilário das Neves". Several of her poems were adapted as lyrics for modinhas - popular songforms of nineteenth century Brazil.

In 1900 she published her only book, Horto, prefaced by Olavo Bilac.

Death Auta de Souza died on 7 February 1901, in Natal, of tuberculosis. She was buried at Cemitério do Alecrim, but in 1904 her remains were moved to the family grave, at the church of Our Lady of Conception, in her birth city, Macaíba.