Born in Lisbon in 1888, Augusto de Santa-Rita was the son of the poet and writer Guilherme Augusto de Santa-Rita (1858-1905) and the brother of the futurist painter Santa-Rita Pintor (1889-1918). He attended the higher commercial programme of the old Industrial and Commercial Institute of Lisbon, but never completed his studies.

In 1912, he made his literary debut with the publication of the songbook Arias Rezas, Canções e Cantares. He wrote several collections of poetry, and theatre plays. A large part of his literary work is destined for young audiences, for instance the supplement “Pim-Pam-Pam” in the Portuguese daily newspaper O Século.

Under the authoritarian regime of Salazar (1933-1974), Augusto de Santa-Rita worked for the SNI (Secretariado Nacional de Informação: National Information Secretariat), the organisation responsible for political propaganda.

The Teatro de Mestre Gil, his puppet theatre, is described by the scholar Henrique Delgado as a “beautiful poetic achievement by this extraordinary creator of beautiful and splendid things”. Santa-Rita wrote several puppet plays inspired by the Dom Roberto, the popular Portuguese traditional puppets, which he admired. Two of his plays are kept in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (Torre do Tombo National Archive) in Lisbon, Uma toirada and Prólogo, both dated 1942.