Fernando Pessoa

Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa was born in Lisbon on June 13, 1888, and died on November 30, 1935. On the eve of his death, he wrote from his hospital bed: "I know not what tomorrow will bring." What the future undoubtedly brought was his recognition as one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. Pessoa is both a poet and a poetic myth. He lived his life on the edge of obscurity, publishing only a small part of his vast body of work—an unfinished and multifaceted oeuvre—which he left to future generations locked in the famous trunk, thus ensuring his posthumous fame.Very few events make up his biography: the death of his father, moving with his new family to Durban, South Africa, an English education, returning to Lisbon, earning a living as a correspondence clerk in commercial houses, a platonic love, and much solitude. His multifaceted poetic life stands in stark contrast to his biography. Pessoa, who signed his works both with his own name and with 72 recorded heteronyms, is a unique figure in the history of world literature. The four main contributors to his originality and productivity are his heteronyms: the teacher of all, Alberto Caeiro, poet of "The Keeper of Sheep"; the eccentric naval engineer Álvaro de Campos, poet of "Maritime Ode" and "Tobacconist's Shop"; the epicurean, stoic classicist composer of odes Ricardo Reis; and finally, Bernardo Soares, author of "The Book of Disquiet." The masterful conductor of this unique orchestra is Fernando Pessoa himself: the poet of "Message," the short story writer of "The Anarchist Banker," the tireless essayist on all subjects, the playwright of an unfinished "Faust," who defined his art by saying: "Pretending is the poet's art."