Having completed her school studies between 1915 and 1918, majoring in mathematics, Castro began to attend literary salons in 1920, including those given by
Veva de Lima. She would spend her Sundays at the home of the writer and poet,
Branca de Gonta Colaço. A year later, she gave up attending a Polytechnic School and published her first book,
Ante-manhã, containing verses written when she was between 15 and 18. Publication of this book, under the name of Maria Fernanda de Castro e Quadros, was a birthday present from family and friends. She was astonished to find that "my little book was not badly received". She then went on to win first prize in a competition to submit an original play. This was named
Náufragos (Castaways) and was written in collaboration with her friend, Teresa Leitão de Barros. It had its first performance in 1924. On 7 April 1921 she contributed to the first edition of the
Diário de Lisboa newspaper, which also included work by her future husband. After this, she began to sign her name as Fernanda de Castro, publishing a second book of poetry called
Danças de Roda (Circle Dances). Accompanying her husband and invited by the Brazilian
modernist writer
Oswald de Andrade and his wife, she then went to Paris, where the two couples were part of the social circle of people such as the artist
Francis Picabia, the fashion designer
Paul Poiret, and the composers
Arthur Honegger and
Eric Satie. In 1925, she published her second book of poems, entitled
Varinha de Condão (Magic Wand), in collaboration with Teresa Leitão de Barros. She was also translating foreign plays for her husband's new theatre group, which was performing at Lisbon's
Teatro da Rua dos Condes. In 1926 she published her first children's books including
Mariazinha em África, which became very popular. The first edition had a cover by
Sarah Affonso. In 1927 she published
As Novas Aventuras de Mariazinha (The new adventures of Mariazinha). Castro assisted her husband to collect exhibits for the Portugal Pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition, held in 1937. She also played an important role in various conferences held at the Pavilion, whose participants included the French novelist,
Colette. In 1939 there were Portuguese pavilions at exhibitions in New York City and San Francisco, and Castro also worked with her husband on these. In 1940, she wrote the script for the ballet
A Lenda das Amendoeiras (The Legend of the Almond Trees), which was performed at the
Teatro da Trindade. In the same year she collaborated with her husband, a supporter and propagandist of the
Estado Novo dictatorship, in the presentation of the
Portuguese World Exhibition in Lisbon. She then translated
El Padre Setubal (Father Setubal) by
Maurice Maeterlinck, presented at the
D. Maria II National Theatre by
Amélia Rey Colaço and
Robles Monteiro. During World War II, Castro published a cookbook, under the pseudonym of Teresa Diniz that recognised the shortages caused by the war as it was entitled One Hundred Recipes Without Meat. In 1944, she translated the Journal of
Katherine Mansfield and in 1945 she published the novel,
Maria da Lua, for which she became the first woman to win the Ricardo Malheiros Prize, from the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon. In 1946 she translated
Letters to a Young Poet by the Austrian writer
Rainer Maria Rilke. Others she translated included
Luigi Pirandello and
Eugène Ionesco. In 1950, her husband was appointed as Portuguese ambassador to Switzerland and Castro accompanied him there, but travelled frequently back to Portugal. In 1953 she launched the magazine
Bem Viver (Live Well) and edited it for two years. Her husband was then transferred to Rome. Despite playing the role of the diplomat's wife, she still found time to write new poems and novels. By 1985 Castro had become bedridden and almost blind. She dictated her memoirs to two friends, Teresa Zeverino and Edith Arvelos. The first volume,
Ao Fim da Memória (1906-1939), was published in 1986. The second volume, covering 1939–1987, was published a year later. Her final novel,
Everything is Principle, was published posthumously in 2006. She died in Lisbon on 19 December 1994. ==Awards and honours==