Fernando Pessoa was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1888. He lost his father at age 5 and brother the following year, after which his mother moved the family to South Africa. Pessoa received a British education in Durban from 1896-1905, mastering English and winning academic prizes. He returned alone to Lisbon in 1905. Around 1914, Pessoa began developing "heteronyms," or distinct literary personalities with their own styles. Some of his most famous heteronyms included Alberto Caeiro and Ricardo Reis. Pessoa worked as a commercial translator but dedicated much of his time to writing under his heteronyms. He published his only book of Portuguese poems, "Message," in 1934 and died of

1. Fernando
Pessoa

2. Your Birth
Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa was
born on June 13, 1888 in Lisbon.

3. The family
• Her parents were Maria Magdalena
Pinheiro Nogueira, a 26-year-old Azorean;
and Joaquim de Seabra Pessoa, a 38-year-
old from Lisbon who worked as a civil
servant at the Ministry of Justice and as a
music critic for the newspaper “Diário de
Notícias.

4. • In June 1893 the father died at
the age of 43 as a result of
tuberculosis. Fernando
Pessoa was five years old.
• The family auctions off some
of the furniture and moves to
a more modest home.
• The following year Fernando's
brother, Jorge, dies.
• Fernando begins to populate
his universe with imaginary
friends, on whose behalf he
writes letters to himself to

5. Durban (1896-1905)
• In December 1895 his mother married by
proxy with Commander João Miguel Rosa,
consul of Portugal in Durban (South
Africa).

6. Durban (1896-1905)
Pessoa receives a British education in
Durban that gives him a deep contact with
the English language.

7. Durban (1896-1905)
Reads works by
Shakespeare, Edgar
Allan Poe and Lord
Byron among others.
He masters the new
language perfectly
and becomes one of
the best students.

8. Durban (1896-1905)
• In 1903 he obtained the prestigious
“QueenVictoria Memorial Prize” for the
essay presented in the entrance exam to
the University of Cabo da Boa Esperança.
• Writes poetry and prose in English with
several heteronyms: Charles Robert…

9. Return to Portugal
• In 1905 he returned alone to Lisbon to live
with his aunt Anica.
• In 1906 he enrolled in the Higher Course of
Letters, which he left without even
completing his first year.
He tries to create a small typography with
the heritage of his grandmother Dionísia in
1907.

10. The beginning of literary activity
• From 1908 he dedicated
himself to translating
commercial correspondence.
In this profession he works all
his life, having a modest public
life.
• Read the Portuguese classics
intensely. He approaches the
mystical movement of the
“Portuguese Renaissance” and
publishes a series of articles on
the new Portuguese poetry in

11. The “Orpheu”
magazine
• In 1915, a person with this group of
intellectuals founded the magazine
“Orpheu”, spokesman for the new
literary trends of the European historical
vanguards (Cubism, Futurism,…).
• The magazine was ephemeral but
inaugurated a new, deeply modern
aesthetic in the 20th century.

12. The beginning of heteronyms
• As of March 1914 Pessoa has experienced
the formation of other personalities called
“heteronyms”.
• Heteronyms are different personalities and
even independent of their creator who
express themselves in literature. Each
heteronym writes on his own and with his
own literary canons.
• The first heteronym is Alberto Caeiro, a

13. Ophélia Queiroz
• In one of the offices where Pessoa works,
he meets Ophelia Quiroz, a 19-year-old girl
with whom he has a sentimental
relationship. It is an old-fashioned
courtship, with walking tours and
exchange of letters and notes.
• She created a funny heteronym for Pessoa:
Ferdinand Personne. “Personne” means
“nobody”, being a pun because Fernando,
for creating other personalities, does not
have a defined self.

14. Between
love and his
literary
work
• Between a normal family life and the
writing that demands space and time,
Pessoa chooses to break the courtship
in November 1920.
• Definitely lonely, without friendships
or loves, but with his sick mother
returning from South Africa, Pessoa
dedicates himself completely to his
literary work.

15. The publication of his first book
"Message" • His poetic work, spread in
magazines, reflects the great
themes of literature of all times: the
anguish of knowledge, the
metaphysics of the real, etc.
• In 1934, he published “Mensagem”,
his only volume of Portuguese verses
that was published while he was
alive.

16. Your death
• The following year, on November 30, 1935,
after a brief illness he died at the Hospital de
São Luís dos Franceses, in Lisbon.
• He dies of liver problems, caused by the
obvious excess of alcohol throughout his life.
• He dies at the age of 47 in the same city where
he was born, and his last sentence was written
in English: “I know not what tomorrow will
bring…”.