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

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 eventually married the Portuguese consul in Durban, South Africa. Fernando and his new family moved to Durban--city in which he would live till age 17. Pessoa attended English speaking schools in both Durban and Cape Town. The majority of his schoolmates were English... Throughout his lifetime Pessoa considered himself bilingual and bicultural.

Early on Pessoa excelled in English composition, surpassing his English peers. Pessoa essentially learnt English by reading literature--not through the ear like most native speakers. Shakespeare, Milton and Dickens were some of the writers he was given to reading. Pessoa moved back to Lisbon when he was 17 in order to attend university, but a student strike put an end to his studies. The young man studied privately for a year at home. After his period of study he began to work as an assistant for a businessman, where he was charged with writing correspondence and translating documents.

In March 1914 the 25 year old Fernando Pessoa underwent a quite unique experience. The first of the several "heteronyms" was born. In a letter written to his friend Adolfo Casais Monteiro, Pessoa described the birth of this heteronym:

[It] was March 8th 1914--I approached a high chest of drawers, and, taking a sheet of paper, I began to write, standing up, as I always write whenever I can. And I wrote thirty or so poems at a stroke in a kind of ecstatic trance, the nature of which I will not be able to define to you. It was the day of triumph in my life and I shall never succeed in living another like that. I opened with the title 'The Keeper of the Flock' ('O Guardador de Rebanhos'); and what followed was that someone emerged from within me, and whom I christened that very moment Alberto Caeiro. Forgive me for the absurdity of the following sentence: my master emerged from within me.

It is worth noting that "heteronym" is a term coined by Pessoa. It is not exactly the same thing as a "pseudonym." Pessoa defined his use of the term heteronym by distinguishing it from the term pseudonym: "A pseudonymous work is, except for the name with which it is signed, the work of an author writing as himself; a heteronymic work is by an author writing outside his own personality: it is the work of a complete individuality made up by him, just as the utterances of some character in any of his plays would be."

Pessoa himself could never fully understand the how and why of these "individualities." He once ascribed 'the mental origin' of the heteronyms to his 'organic and constant propensity toward depersonalisation and simulation,' propensities he attributed to 'the profound streak of hysteria which is existent within me.'

Pessoa's earliest heteronyms were Charles Robert Anon and Alexander Search; these were eventually succeeded by others, among them: Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis, Bernardo Soares. The heteronyms possess distinct temperaments, philosophies, appearances, writing styles. According to Pessoa the heteronym closest to his personality was Bernardo Soares, the author of Book of Disquiet. Indeed he considered Soares a "semi-heteronym." The three most important heteronyms are the poets Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis. Here is Pessoa on his major heteronyms:

Caeiro has one discipline: things must be felt as they are. Ricardo Reis has another kind of discipline: things must be felt, not only as they are, but also so as to fall in with a certain ideal of classic measure and rule. In Alvaro de Campos things must simply be felt.

Many consider the Book of Disquiet (by Bernardo Soares) to be Pessoa's masterwork. And yet Pessoa is primarily known for his poetry. His best poetry was probably written under the heteronym Alvaro de Campos. Perhaps the strangest of the heteronyms is Alberto Caeiro.

During his lifetime Pessoa led a chiefly isolated existence: he avoided social life and the literary world. Although he did frequent several intellectual circles in Lisbon. Borges called him "Portugal's national poet," placing him above Camoes. Pessoa himself had the ambition to become a 'Super-Camoes.' Today his eminence over Camoes is disputed. 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.

Fernando Pessoa died on November 30, 1935 in Lisbon.

For the original article on Pessoa (by the original author) see: Literary Genius: Fernando Pessoa.

Alberto Caeiro

I have no ambitions and no desires.
To be a poet is not my ambition,
It's my way of being alone.

--Alberto Caeiro: 'The Keeper of Sheep'

Alberto Caeiro is Pessoa's first great heteronym. Caeiro is perhaps my favorite heteronym of the three; although, it is true, I recognize Alvaro de Campos' poetic achievement as superior-- Caeiro is nonetheless the most endearing.

The best summarization of Caeiro is given by Pessoa himself: "He sees things with the eyes only, not with the mind. He does not let any thoughts arise when he looks at a flower...the only thing a stone tells him is that it has nothing at all to tell him...this way of looking at a stone may be described as the totally unpoetic way of looking at it. The stupendous fact about Caeiro is that out of this sentiment, or rather, absense of sentiment, he makes poetry."

What makes Caeiro such an original poet is the way he apprehends existence. He does not question anything whatsoever; he calmly accepts the world as it is. Caeiro is indeed a child of sorts: the recurrent themes, as a critic notes, to be found in nearly all Caeiro's poems are 'wide-eyed child-like wonder at the infinite variety of nature.' He is free of metaphysical entanglements (as Campos and Pessoa himself are). Central to his world-view is the idea that in the world around us, all is surface: things are precisely what they seem, there is no hidden meaning anywhere.

He manages thus to free himself from the anxieties that batter his peers; for Caeiro 'things simply exist and we have no right to credit them with more than that.' Our unhappiness, he tells us, springs from our unwillingness to limit our horizons. Caeiro in this sense is wise: he attains happiness by not questioning, and by thus avoiding doubts and uncertainties.

For Caeiro apprehended reality solely through his eyes, through his senses. What he teaches us is that if we want to be happy we ought to do the same. Octavio Paz called him 'the innocent poet'; true, he is innocent by our standards, and yet: does not his wisdom--experience-- consist precisely in his 'innocence'? Paz made a shrewd remark on the heteronyms: "In each are particles of negation or unreality. Reis believes in form, Campos in sensation, Pessoa in symbols. Caeiro doesn't believe in anything. He exists."

Caeiro is a wonderful invention; is there a poet before him who thinks, or rather, sees as he does? Poetry before Caeiro was essentially interpretative; what poets did was to offer us an interpretation of their perceived surroundings; Caeiro does not do this: instead, he attempts to communicate his senses, his feelings to us, without any interpretation whatsoever.

Caeiro teaches us to apprehend Nature differently; he asks of us, simply, to see what is before us. Poets before him would have made use of intricate metaphors to describe what was before them; not so Caeiro: his self-appointed task is to bring these objects to the reader's attention, as directly and simply as possible. Caeiro sought a direct experience of the objects before him.

It does not surprise us that Caeiro has been called an anti-intellectual, anti-Romantic, anti-subjectivist, anti-metaphysical...an anti-poet, by critics; Caeiro simply--is. He is in this sense very unlike his creator Fernando Pessoa: Pessoa was besieged by metaphysical uncertainties; these were, to a large extent, the cause of his unhappiness; not so Caeiro: his attitude is anti-metaphysical; he avoided uncertainties by adamantly clinging to a certainty: his belief that there is no meaning behind things. Things, for him, simply--are.

Caeiro represents a primal vision of reality, of things. He is the pagan incarnate. Indeed Caeiro, Richard Zenith tells us, was not simply a pagan but 'paganism itself'.

The critic Jane M. Sheets, sees the insurgence of Caeiro--who was Pessoa's first major heteronym-- as essential in founding the later poetic personas: "By means of this artless yet affirmative anti-poet, Caeiro, a short-lived but vital member of his coterie, Pessoa acquired the base of an experienced and universal poetic vision. After Caeiro's tenets had been established, the avowedly poetic voices of Campos, Reis and Pessoa himself spoke with greater assurance."

Ricardo Reis

As long as I feel the full breeze in my hair
And see the sun shining bright on the leaves,
I will not ask for more.
What better thing could destiny give me
Than the sensual passing of life in moments
Of ignorance like this?

--Ricardo Reis

Reis sums up his philosophy of life: he admonishes: 'see life from a distance. never question it. there's nothing it can tell you.' Like Caeiro, Reis defers from questioning life; his philosophy entails the avoidance of pain; man for him should seek tranquillity and calm above all else. Richard Zenith notes Reis' recurrent themes: 'the brevity of life, the vanity of wealth and struggle, the joy of simple pleasures, patience in time of trouble, and avoidance of extremes.'

He is in a sense a passive poet: his philosophy is one of resignation. Is his stance a product of weariness? He lacks the joviality which characterizes Caeiro. Reis's poetry, as noted by a critic, is austere and cerebral. He is detached, intellectual, like his creator Fernando Pessoa. Pessoa's heteronyms in one way or another represent aspects of the poet himself. Reis represents Pessoa's wish for measure and sobriety; a world free of troubles and respite.

Reis, a pagan, is decidedly un-Christian: he casts off the fetters of Christianity which he feels encumber his existence; instead he chooses to worship the ancient Greek gods. He chants: 'Your dead gods tell me nothing I need to know. Without love or hatred I dismiss the crucifix from my way of being.'

Reis is a modern pagan who urges one to seize the day and accept fate with tranquility. 'Wise is the one who does not seek', he says; and continues: 'the seeker will find in all things the abyss, and doubt in himself.' In this sense Reis shares essential affinities with Caeiro.

The essential difference between the two is that while Caeiro's predominant attitude is that of joviality, Reis is marked by melancholy; he is saddened by the impermanence of all things. And while it is true that Caeiro can be sad, his is of a different kind. 'My sadness,' Caeiro says, 'is a comfort for it is natural and right.'

Alvaro de Campos

Não sou nada.
Nunca serei nada.
Não posso querer ser nada.
À parte isso, tenho em mim todos os sonhos do mundo.

(I'm nothing.
I'll always be nothing.
I can't want to be something.
But I have in me all the dreams of the world.)

--Alvaro de Campos: 'Tabacaria' ('The Tobacco Shop')

Alvaro de Campos is undoubtedly Pessoa's greatest heteronym. 'Campos,' as Zenith notes, 'was the most substantial of Pessoa's heteronyms and the one closest to his true heart and person...he was in many ways a larger-than-life version of his creator.' Of the three heteronyms he is the one who feels the strongest; his motto was 'to feel everything in every way.' 'The best way to travel,' he wrote, 'is to feel.'

Campos manifests two contrary impulses: on the one hand: a feverish desire to be everything and everyone, declaring that 'in every corner of my soul stands an altar to a different god.' The second impulse is toward a state of isolation and a sense of nothingness.

Of the first of these impulses: Campos is possessed of the Whitmanian desire to 'contain multitudes'. Critics have noted how 'Whitman's influence is apparent in part in the sheer vitality of these poems, in the zest for experience which they express.' Indeed Campos has in many respects outdone his precursor in 'containing multitudes': it seems that the entire cosmos is not enough for him to 'contain'. After chanting all the places, all the ports, all the sights he's seen.... 'Of all this,' he remarks, 'which is so much, is nothing next to what I want.'

Campos' poems represent the apotheosis of Pessoan anguish. His poems reflect an existentially anguished search for meaning. The poems are at once nostalgic, self-ironic; here despair, terror, the self questioning of the poet are laid bare. The poems as a critic remarks, evoke an 'atmosphere of unreality' this state is created 'by insistence on denial, negativity, absence, loss.'

One of the poet's constant preoccupations is that of identity: he does not know who he is. The problem, it seems, is not that he doesn't know what to be; on the contrary: he wants to be too much, everything; short of achieving this he despairs. Unlike Caeiro, who asks nothing of life, he asks too much. In his poetic meditation 'Tobacco Shop' he asks:

How should I know what I'll be, I who don't know what I am?
Be what I think? But I think of being so many things!

Campos can be manic-depressive, exultant, violent, dynamic; he quests for nowhere and everywhere at once. His is an agonized doubt at the wasting of life-- at life, everything. For a critic he is 'par excellence the poet appalled by the emptiness of his own existence, lethargic, lacking in will-power, seeking inspiration, or at all events finding it, in semi-conscious states, in the twilight world between waking and sleeping, in dreams and in drunkenness.'

Fernando Pessoa-himself

The poet is a faker
Who's so good at his act
He even fakes the pain
Of pain he feels in fact

--Fernando Pessoa-himself: Autopsychography

'Fernando Pessoa-himself' is not the 'real' Fernando Pessoa. Like Caeiro, Reis and Campos-- Pessoa-himself embodies only aspects of the poet. As will be seen Fernando Pessoa's personality is not stamped in any given voice; his personality is diffused through the heteronyms. For this reason 'Fernando Pessoa-himself' stands apart from the poet proper.

In reading the poetry of Pessoa-himself we shall realize that he shares many essential affinities with his peers, Caeiro and Campos in particular. Lines crop up in his poems that may as well be ascribed to Campos or Caeiro. It is useful to keep this in mind as we read this exposition.

The critic Leland Guyer sums up Pessoa-himself: "the poetry of the orthonymic Fernando Pessoa normally possesses a measured, regular form and appreciation of the musicality of verse. It takes on intellectual issues, and it is marked by concern with dreams, the imagination and mystery."

Richard Zenith calls Pessoa-himself '[Pessoa's] most intellectual and analytic poetic persona.' Like Alvaro de Campos, Pessoa-himself was afflicted with an acute identity crisis. Pessoa-himself has been described as indecisive and doubt plagued, as restless. Like Campos he can be melancholic, weary, resigned. The strength of Pessoa-himself's poetry rests in his ability to suggest a sense of loss; of sorrow for what can never be.

A constant theme in Pessoa's poetry is Tedio, or Tedium. The dictionary defines this word simply as 'a condition of being tedious; tediousness or boredom.' This definition does not sufficiently encompass the peculiar brand of tedium experienced by Pessoa-himself. His is more than simple boredom: it is a world weariness and disgust with life; a sense of the finality of failure; of the impossibility of having anything to want.

'The impossibility of having anything to want': this is Tedio for Pessoa-himself. It is one thing to have nothing to do or want, but to be deprived even of this...is tedium. Kierkegaard tells how if asked to choose between the two; between a perpetual state of boredom, or eternal bodily pain; he would choose--eternal bodily pain. Pessoa-himself, I believe, would undoubtedly concur with the melancholy Dane.

Message

Mensagem Message is a very unusual 20th century book: it is a symbolist epic made up of 44 short poems organized in three parts or Cycles: The first called "Brasão" (Coat-of-Arms) relates Portuguese historical protagonists to each of the fields and charges in the Portuguese coat-of-arms. The first two poems ("The castles" and "The escutcheons") draw inspiration from the material and spiritual natures of Portugal. Each of the remaining poems associates to each charge a historical personality. Ultimately they all lead to the Goldean Age of Discovery.

The second Part, called "Mar Português" (Portuguese Sea) refers the country's Age of Portuguese Exploration and to its sea-borne Empire that ended with the death of King Sebastian at El-Ksar el-Kebir (in 1578). Pessoa brings the reader to the present as if he had woken up from a dream of the past, to fall in a dream of the future: he sees King Sebastian returning and still bent on accomplishing an Universal Empire, like King Arthur heading for Avalon...

The third Cycle, called "O Encoberto" ("The Hidden One"), is the most disturbing. It refers to Pessoa's vision of a future world of peace and the Fifth Empire. After the Age of Force, (Vis), and Taedium (Otium) will come Science (understanding ) through a reawakening of "The Hidden One", or "King Sebastian". The Hidden One represents the fulfillment of the destiny of mankind, designed by God since before Time, and the accomplishment of Portugal.

Literary Essays

In 1912, Fernando Pessoa wrote a set of essays later collected under the designation The New Portuguese Poetry for the literary journal A Águia, (The Eagle), founded in Oporto in December 1910. The first series of two articles engage the issue 'The new Portuguese poetry viewed sociologically' (nos. 4 and 5 ); the second series of three articles is entitled 'The psychological aspect of the new Portuguese poetry' (nos. 9,11 and 12). The articles disclose him as a connoisseur of modern European literature and an expert of recent literary trends. On the other hand, he does not care too much for methodology of analysis and problems of history of ideas. He states his confidence that Portugal would soon produce a great poet -a 'super-Camoens' as he calls him – pledged to make an important contribution for European culture, and indeed, for humanity.

Philosophical Essays

The philosophical notes of young Fernando Pessoa, mostly written between 1905 and 1912, illustrate his debt to the history of Philosophy more through commentators than through a first-hand protracted reading of the Classics, ancient or modern. The issues he engages with pertain to every philosophical discipline and are dealt with a large profusion of concepts, creating a vast semantic spectrum in texts whose length oscillates between half a dozen lines and half a dozen pages and whose density of analysis is extremely variable; simple paraphrasis, expression of assumptions and original speculation.

Pessoa sorted the philosophical systems thus: 1)Relative Spiritualism and relative Materialism privilege “Spirit “or “Matter “as the main pole that organizes data around Experience. 2) Absolute Spiritualist and Absolute Materialist "deny all objective reality to one of the elements of Experience". 3) The materialistic Pantheism of Spinoza and the spiritualizing Pantheism of Malebranche, “admit that experience is a double manifestation of any thing that in its essence has no matter neither spirit". 4) Considering both elements as an illusory manifestation", of a transcendent and true and alone realities, there is Transcendentalism, inclined into matter with Schopenhauer, or into spirit, a position where Bergson could be emplaced. 5) A terminal system “the limited and summit of metaphysics” would not radicalize - as poles of experience one of the singled categories - matter, relative, absolute, real, illusory, spirit. Instead, matching all categories, it takes contradiction as “the essence of the universe” and defends that “an affirmation is so more true insofar the more contradiction involves". The transcendent must be conceived beyond categories. There is one only and eternal example of it. It is that cathedral of thought -the philosophy of Hegel. Such Pantheist Transcendentalism is used by Pessoa to define the project that “encompasses and exceeds all systems "; to characterize the new poetry of Saudosismo where the “typical contradiction of this system“ occurs; to inquire what are the social and politic results of its adoption as the leading cultural paradigm; and, at last, he hints that metaphysics and religiosity strive “to find in everything a beyond".

Selected Works

Book of Disquiet, tr. Richard Zenith

Fernando Pessoa & Co: Selected Poems

The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa

A Centenary Pessoa

Poems of Fernando Pessoa, tr. Honig & Brown

Fernando Pessoa (Pocket Archives Series): Photographs

Selected Links

Português
Instituto Camoes: Fernando Pessoa
Casa Fernando Pessoa
Jornal de Poesia

English
Kirjasto Biography

Español
Poesias Coligidas de Fernando Pessoa

Selected Critical Essays

Criticism

English:

Books:

Ironic Multiplicity: Fernando's "Pessoas" Suspended in Kierkegaardian Irony / Hale, Michelle Pulsipher., 2004

Atlantic Poets: Fernando Pessoa's turn in Anglo-American Modernism / Santos, Maria Irene Ramalho Sousa., 2003

Pessoa's Alberto Caeiro. Publication: [Dartmouth, Mass.] : Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth., 2000

Modernism's Gambit: Poetry Problems and Chess Stratagems in Fernando Pessoa and Jorge Luis Borges / Peña, Karen Patricia., 2000

An Introduction to Fernando Pessoa: Modernism and the Paradoxes of Authorship / Sadlier, Darlene., 1998

A Centenary Pessoa / Pessoa, Fernando., 1997

Fernando Pessoa: Voices of a Nomadic Soul / Kotowicz, Zbigniew., 1996

The Continuing Presence of Walt Whitman: the Life after the Life / Martin, Robert., 1992

Fernando Pessoa: the Bilingual Portuguese Poet / Terlinden-Villepin, Anne., 1990

Three Persons on One: A Centenary Tribute to Fernando Pessoa / McGuirk, Bernard., 1988

Fernando Pessoa, a Galaxy of Poets / Carvalho, Maria Helena Rodrigues de., 1985

Fernando Pessoa's The Mad Fiddler: A Critical Study / Terlinden-Villepin, Anne., 1984

Spatial Imagery of Enclosure in the Poetry of Fernando Pessoa / Guyer, Leland Robert., 1979

The Role of the Other in the Poetry of Fernando Pessoa / Jones, Marilyn Scarantino., 1974

Selected Poems of Fernando Pessoa / Rickard, Peter., 1972

Three Twentieth-Century Portuguese Poets / Parker M., John., 1960

Articles:

(The following articles are located on the Gale website (Galenet.com) --note: password is required for access. Ask your public librarian for a password...More essays can be located in the Gale Criticism Anthologies; these are also found in your public library.)

Wood, Michael, "Mod and Great" in The New York Review of Books, Vol. XIX, No. 4, September 21, 1972, pp. 19-22.
Hollander, John, "Quadrophenia," in New Republic, September 7, 1987, pp. 33-6.
Eberstadt, Fernanda, "Proud of His Obscurity," in The New York Times Book Review, Vol 96, September 1, 1991, p.26.
Dyer, Geoff, "Heteronyms" in The New Statesman, Vol. 4, December 6, 1991, p. 46.
Haberly, David T., "Fernando Pessoa: Overview" in Reference Guide to World Literature, 2nd ed., edited by Lesley Henderson, St. James Press, 1995.
Rosenthal, David H., "Unpredictable Passions," in The New York Times Book Review, December 13, 1987, p. 32.
Sheets, Jane M., "Fernando Pessoa as Anti-Poet: Alberto Caeiro," in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Vol. XLVI, No. 1, January 1969, pp. 39-47. Reprinted in Poetry Criticism, Vol. 20.
Severino, Alex, "Fernando Pessoa's Legacy: The Presença and After," in World Literature Today, Vol. 53, No. 1, Winter, 1979, pp. 5-9. Reprinted in Poetry Criticism, Vol. 20.
Sousa, Ronald W., "The Structure of Pessoa's Mensagem," in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Vol. LIX, No. 1, January 1982, pp. 58-66. Reprinted in Poetry Criticism, Vol. 20.
Guyer, Leland, "Fernando Pessoa and the Cubist Perspective," in Hispania, Vol. 70, No. 1, March 1987, pp. 73-8. Reprinted in Poetry Criticism, Vol. 20.
Cruz, Anne J., "Masked Rhetoric: Contextuality in Fernando Pessoa's Poems," in Romance Notes, Vol. XXIX, No. 1, Fall, 1988, pp. 55-60. Reprinted in Poetry Criticism, Vol. 20.

Português:
Pessoa / Carvalho, António Carlos. Publication: Lisboa: Pergaminho, 1999
O coração do texto = Le coeur du texte: novos ensaios pessoanos / Seabra, José Augusto.; Galhoz, Maria Aliete Dores. Publication: Lisboa : Edições Cosmos, 1996
Para compreender Fernando Pessoa: uma aproximação a Fernando Pessoa e heteronimos / Pais, Amélia Pinto. Publication: Porto : Areal Editores, 1996
Pessoa inédito / Lopes, Maria Teresa Rita. Publication: Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, 1993
A vivência do tempo em Fernando Pessoa e outros ensaios pessoanos / Matos, Maria Vitalina Leal de, Publication: Lisboa, Portugal: Editorial Verbo, 1993
Philosophy and Poetry: The coherences of Fernando Pessoa / Henriques, Mendo Castro, Lisboa, Editorial Verbo, 1989
Literatura & heteronímia: sobre Fernando Pessoa / Diogo, Américo António Lindeza. Publication: Pontevedra-Braga: Irmandades da Fala de Galiza e Portugal, 1992
Pessoa por conhecer, 2 volumes / Lopes., 1990
Fernando Pessoa espelho e a esfinge / Moisés, Massaud. Publication: São Paulo: Editora Cultrix : Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, 1988
Nos passos de Pessoa: ensaios / Mourão-Ferreira, David. Publication: Lisboa: Editorial Presença, 1988
Estudos sobre Fernando Pessoa / Crespo, Angel. Publication: Lisboa, Portugal: Teorema, 1988
Fernando Pessoa, o desconhecido de si mesmo / Paz, Octavio; Da Costa, Luís Alves. Publication: Lisboa: Vega, 1988
Fernando Pessoa: os trezentos e outros ensaios / Centeno, Y. K. Publication: Lisboa: Editorial Presença, 1988
Microleituras de Alvaro de Campos: e outras investigações pessoanas / Coêlho, Joaquim-Francisco. Publication: Lisboa: Publicações Dom Quixote, 1987
Compreender Pessoa / Vilhena, Ramires. Publication: Lisboa : Vega, 1986
O essencial sobre Fernando Pessoa / Lancastre, Maria José de. Publication: [Lisbon]: INCM, 1985
Fernando Pessoa: aquém do eu, além do outro / Perrone-Moisés, Leyla.Publication: São Paulo, SP, Brasil: Martins Fontes, 1982
Estudos sobre Fernando Pessoa / Lind, Georg Rudolf. Publication: [Lisbon]: Impr. Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1981
Pessoa e Camões: três análises divergentes / Alves, José Edil de Lima. Publication: Porto Alegre: Editora Movimento, 1979
O constelado Fernando Pessoa / Quesado, José Clécio Basílio. Publication: Rio de Janeiro: Imago Editora, 1976
Um Fernando Pessoa / Silva, Agostinho da. Publication: Lisboa: Guimarães Editores, 1959
Introduction a la poesie de Fernando Pessoa / Casais Monteiro, Adolfo, 1938

Espaňol:
El silencio de los poetas: Pessoa, Pizarnik, Celan, Michaux / Cohen, Sara / Publicacion: Buenos Aires: Editorial Biblos, 2002
Con Fernando Pessoa / Crespo, Angel / Publicacion: Madrid : Huerga & Fierro, 2000
Un baúl lleno de gente: Escritos sobre Pessoa / Tabucchi, Antonio; Ladrón de Guevara, Pedro Luis. / Publicacion: Madrid: Huerga & Fierro, 1997
Identidad y alteridad en Fernando Pessoa y Antonio Machado: / Lourenço, António Apolinário. / Publicacion: Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 1997
Fernando Pessoa en palabras y en imágenes / Llardent, José Antonio. / Publicacion: [Madrid] : Ediciones Siruela: Ministerio de Cultura, 1995
La sensibilidad finisecular: Joyce, Woolf, Pessoa / Alzuru, Pedro / Publicacion: Mérida, Venezuela: Consejo de Publicaciones, ULA, 1993
El texto íntimo: Rilke, Kafka y Pessoa / Castro Flórez, Fernando / Publicacion: Madrid: Tecnos, 1993
Pessoa, la respuesta de la palabra / López Meléndez, Teódulo/ Publicacion: Caracas: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1992
Fernando Pessoa, un místico sin fe: una aproximación al pensamiento heteronímico / Ordóñez, Andrés / Publicacion: México, D.F.: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1991
Díptico pessoano / García Martín, José Luis / Publicacion: Mérida: Editora Regional de Extremadura, 1990
Fernando Pessoa: identidad y diferencia / Vázquez Medel, Manuel Angel / Publicacion: Sevilla: Galaxia, 1988
Estudios sobre Pessoa / Crespo, Angel / Publicacion: Barcelona, España: Bruguera, 1984
Fernando Pessoa / García Martín, José Luis/ Publicacion: Madrid: Ediciones Júcar, 1983