Fernando Pessoa

Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (June 13, 1888 - November 30, 1935) was born in Lisbon and is seen by many as the greatest modern Portuguese author.

Biographical Overview

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Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa was born June 13th, 1888 in Lisbon, Portugal. Two early deaths beset Fernando's family when he was still a little boy: when he was five his father died, followed by his brothers' death a year after. His widowed mother married the Portuguese consul in Durban, South Africa. Pessoa attended English speaking schools in both Durban and Cape Town. He came to Lisbon at 17. He frequented Curso Superior de Letras, as he wrote his philosophical manuscripts. He met Mario de Sa Carneiro and other Portugueses poets. He wrote for A Aguia, Portugal's then leading literary review. Through his life, he published poetry and essays, saying " Portugueses Language is my fatherland"

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During his lifetime Pessoa frequented several intellectual circles in Lisbon. He had the ambition to become a 'Super-Camoes.' He is more commonly thought to be the greatest poet since Camoes. The critic Harold Bloom, in his book The Western Canon called him--along with Pablo Neruda--the most representative poet of the 20th century. He died of cyrrhosis, on November 30, 1935 in Lisbon.

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