He began his studies at the state capital, continued in Cachoeira do Campo, where the Portuguese teacher, a priest predicted: "You will still be a writer," and ended them in São João del Rei.

Still very young, he entered literary life as a member of the Minas Gerais' "Generation of 1945", together with such writers as Fernando Sabino, Otto Lara Resende, Hélio Pellegrino, João Ettiene Filho, Carlos Castello Branco and Murilo Rubião.

In Belo Horizonte, Campos directed the literary supplement of Folha de Minas and worked in his uncle's construction company.

Admitted to IPASE in 1947 as a building inspector, Campos became editor of that organization and became director of the Rare Books Division of the National Library in Rio de Janeiro.

He was also a skillful translator of English and French poetry and prose into Portuguese - among others, the works of Jules Verne, Oscar Wilde, John Ruskin, Shakespeare, and Neruda.