José Dias de Melo

He studied in the city of Horta, in the local lyceum and primary educational institution, but eventually settled in Ponta Delgada after 1949 where he was to marry and begin a family.

While in Horta he worked for the regional newspapers, including the regional newspapers O Telegrafo, Açores, and Ilha, and the national media Diário de Notícias and Diário de Lisboa; during his time in Horta, with other school colleagues, he helped found the Associação Cultural Académica ("Academic Cultural Association") in November, 1944.

His contribution to Portuguese culture, is his thirty published works in various styles: poems, narratives, novels, romances, chronicle, monographs, dissertations and studies in the field of ethnography.

The book Pedras Negras ("Dark Stones"), published for the first time in 1954, and now on its 4th edition, was translated into various languages (including English and Japonese).

Writing of this book, Urbano Bettencourt said: Similarly, Vamberto Freitas, wrote how he "registered and/or tranfigured the problematic socio-political and economic situation of the islands, turning them a part of contemporary Portuguese history.