The Book of Disquietude

Fernando Pessoa, 1888 - 1935 Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa was born in Lisbon. His father died when he was young and his mother married the Portuguese consul in Durban in South Africa where they lived from 1896 to 1951. During this time, Pessoa became fluent in English and was educated in Cape Town and Lisbon.

Pessoa was employed as a business correspondent and also as a commercial translator. The bulk of his work was published in literary magazines, especially in his own Athena. His first book, "Antinous," appeared in 1918 and was followed by two other collection of poems, all written in English. In 1933, he published "Mensagem" his first book in Portuguese. "Livro Do Dessossogego (The Book of Disquiet)" the "factless autobiography" was written under the name of Bernardo Soares and appeared for the first time in 1982, almost fifty years after his death.

After the republican revolution, in 1910, and consequent patriotic atmosphera, Pessoa created an alter ego, a heteronym, named Álvaro de Campos, supposedly a Portuguese naval engineer, born in Tavira and graduated in Glasgow. Translator Richard Zenith notes that Pessoa eventually established at least seventy-two heteronyms. According to Pessoa himself, there were three main heteronyms: Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis. The heteronyms possess distinct biographies, temperaments, philosophies, appearances and writing styles.

Pessoa died on November 30, 1935 in Lisbon. Other writings that were published posthumously and translated into several languages include "Poesias de Fernando Pessoa" (1942), Poesias de Alvaro de Campos" (1944), Poemas de Alberto Caeiro" (1946), and "Odes de Ricardo Reis" (1946).

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