Editing Fernando Pessoa (section)

==Heteronyms==
{{More citations needed|section|date=March 2024}}[[File:Lisboa-Pessoa-A Brasileira-1.jpg|thumb|200px|Pessoa's statue outside Lisbon's famous coffeehouse [[A Brasileira]].]]

Pessoa's earliest [[Heteronym (literature)|heteronym]], at the age of six, was Chevalier de Pas, a fictitious knight whom he wrote to himself as.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Zenith |first=Richard |date=2021-07-22 |title=The Heteronymous Identities of Fernando Pessoa |url=https://lithub.com/the-heteronymous-identities-of-fernando-pessoa/ |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US}}</ref> Other childhood heteronyms included the poet Dr. Pancrácio and short story writer David Merrick, followed by Charles Robert Anon, a young Englishman who became Pessoa's [[alter ego]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=MODERN!SMO.pt |title=Pancrácio |url=https://modernismo.pt/index.php/p/699-pancracio |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=modernismo.pt |language=pt-PT}}</ref><ref name="Ciuraru" /> When Pessoa was a student at the [[University of Lisbon]], Anon was replaced by Alexander Search. Search represented a transition heteronym that Pessoa used while searching to adapt to the Portuguese cultural reality. As a result, Pessoa would write many English poems, specifically sonnets, and short stories under the Search heteronym, including "A Very Original Dinner", which was posthumously published after its recovery and subsequent reproduction by Portuguese literary historian Maria Leonor Machado de Sousa.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jackson |first=Kenneth David |date=2016 |title=Pessoa's Voluptuous Skepticism |url=https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Portuguese_Brazilian_Studies/ejph/pessoaplural/Issue10/PDF/I10A02.pdf |journal=Pessoa Plural |volume=10 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sublunary Editions {{!}} Independent publisher |url=https://sublunaryeditions.com/products/a-very-original-dinner-fernando-pessoa |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=sublunaryeditions.com}}</ref> After the [[5 October 1910 revolution]] and its subsequently patriotic atmosphere, Pessoa created another alter ego, [[Álvaro de Campos]], supposedly a Portuguese naval and mechanical engineer, who was born in [[Tavira]], hometown of Pessoa's ancestors, and graduated in [[Glasgow]].<ref name=":0" /> Translator and literary critic Richard Zenith notes that Pessoa eventually established at least seventy-two heteronyms.<ref>''The Book of Disquiet'', tr. Richard Zenith, Penguin classics, 2003.</ref> According to Pessoa himself, Zenith says, there were three main heteronyms of them all: [[Alberto Caeiro]], Álvaro de Campos, and [[Ricardo Reis (heteronym)|Ricardo Reis]]. Pessoa's [[Heteronym (literature)|heteronyms]] differ from pen names, as they possess distinct biographies, temperaments, philosophies, appearances, writing styles, and even signatures.<ref>Letter to Adolfo Casais Monteiro, 13 January 1935.</ref> Thus, [[Heteronym (literature)|heteronyms]] often disagree on various topics as well as argue and discuss with each other about literature, aesthetics, philosophy, and so on.

Regarding the heteronyms, Pessoa wrote:
{{blockquote |How do I write in the name of these three? Caeiro, through sheer and unexpected inspiration, without knowing or even suspecting that I'm going to write in his name. Ricardo Reis, after an abstract meditation, which suddenly takes concrete shape in an ode. Campos, when I feel a sudden impulse to write and don't know what. (My semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares, who in many ways resembles Álvaro de Campos, always appears when I'm sleepy or drowsy, so that my qualities of inhibition and rational thought are suspended; his prose is an endless reverie. He's a semi-heteronym because his personality, although not my own, doesn't differ from my own but is a mere mutilation of it. He's me without my rationalism and emotions. His prose is the same as mine, except for certain formal restraint that reason imposes on my own writing, and his Portuguese is exactly the same – whereas Caeiro writes bad Portuguese, Campos writes it reasonably well but with mistakes such as "me myself" instead of "I myself", etc.., and Reis writes better than I, but with a purism I find excessive...).<ref>"Letter to Adolfo Casais Monteiro", 13 January 1935, in Pessoa, Fernando (2003), ''The Book of Disquiet'', tr. Richard Zenith. London: Penguin classics, p. 474.</ref>}}

{{clear}}

===Pessoa's heteronyms, pseudonyms, and characters===
{{unreferenced section|date=January 2022}}

{| class="sortable wikitable" width="100%" size=="50%"

! No. !! Name !! Type !! Notes
|-
| 1 || Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa || Himself || Commercial correspondent in Lisbon
|-
| 2 || Fernando Pessoa || [[Orthonym]]|| Poet and prose writer
|-
| 3 || Fernando Pessoa || Autonym || Poet and prose writer
|-
| 4 || Fernando Pessoa || Heteronym || Poet; a pupil of Alberto Caeiro
|-
| 5 || [[Alberto Caeiro]] || Heteronym || Poet; author of ''O guardador de Rebanhos'', ''O Pastor Amoroso'' and ''Poemas inconjuntos''; master of heteronyms Fernando Pessoa, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis and António Mora
|-
| 6 || [[Ricardo Reis (heteronym)|Ricardo Reis]] || Heteronym || Poet and prose writer, author of ''Odes'' and texts on the work of Alberto Caeiro
|-
| 7 || Federico Reis || Heteronym / Para-heteronym || Essayist; brother of Ricardo Reis, upon whom he writes
|-
| 8 || [[Álvaro de Campos]] || Heteronym || Poet and prose writer; a pupil of Alberto Caeiro
|-
| 9 || António Mora || Heteronym || Philosopher and sociologist; theorist of [[Neopaganism]]; a pupil of Alberto Caeiro
|-
| 10 || Claude Pasteur || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || French translator of ''Cadernos de reconstrução pagã'' conducted by António Mora
|-
| 11 || {{ill|Bernardo Soares|pt}} || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || Poet and prose writer; author of the second phase of ''[[The Book of Disquiet]]''
|-
| 12 || Vicente Guedes || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || Translator, poet; director of Ibis Press; author of a paper; author of the first phase of ''[[The Book of Disquiet]]''
|-
| 13 || Gervasio Guedes || Heteronym / Para-heteronym || Author of the text "A Coroação de Jorge Quinto"
|-
| 14 || {{ill|Alexander Search|pt}} || Heteronym || Poet and short story writer
|-
| 15 || Charles James Search || Heteronym / Para-heteronym || Translator and essayist; brother of Alexander Search
|-
| 16 || Jean-Méluret of Seoul || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || French poet and essayist
|-
| 17 || Rafael Baldaya || Heteronym || Astrologer; author of ''Tratado da Negação'' and ''Princípios de Metaphysica Esotérica''
|-
| 18 || Barão de Teive || Heteronym || Prose writer; author of ''Educação do Stoica'' and ''Daphnis e Chloe''
|-
| 19 || Charles Robert Anon || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || Poet, philosopher and story writer
|-
| 20 || A. A. Crosse || Pseudonym / Proto-heteronym || Author and puzzle-solver
|-
| 21 || Thomas Crosse || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || English epic character/occultist, popularized in Portuguese culture
|-
| 22 || I. I. Crosse || Heteronym / Para-heteronym ||
|-
| 23 || David Merrick || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || Poet, storyteller and playwright
|-
| 24 || Lucas Merrick || Heteronym / Para-heteronym || Short story writer; perhaps brother David Merrick
|-
| 25 || Pêro Botelho || Heteronym / Pseudonym || Short story writer and author of letters
|-
| 26 || Abilio Quaresma || Heteronym / Character / Meta-heteronym || Character inspired by Pêro Botelho and author of short detective stories
|-
| 27 || Inspector Guedes || Character / Meta-heteronym? || Character inspired by Pêro Botelho and author of short detective stories
|-
| 28 || Uncle Pork || Pseudonym / Character || Character inspired by Pêro Botelho and author of short detective stories
|-
| 29 || Frederick Wyatt || Alias / Heteronym || English poet and prose writer
|-
| 30 || Rev. Walter Wyatt || Character || Possibly brother of Frederick Wyatt
|-
| 31 || Alfred Wyatt || Character || Another brother of Frederick Wyatt and resident of Paris
|-
| 32 || Maria José || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || Wrote and signed "A Carta da Corcunda para o Serralheiro"
|-
| 33 || Chevalier de Pas || Pseudonym / Proto-heteronym || Author of poems and letters
|-
| 34 || Efbeedee Pasha || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || Author of humoristic stories
|-
| 35 || Faustino Antunes / A. Moreira || Heteronym / Pseudonym || Psychologist and author of ''Ensaio sobre a Intuição''
|-
| 36 || Carlos Otto || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || Poet and author of ''Tratado de Lucta Livre''
|-
| 37 || Michael Otto || Pseudonym / Para-heteronym || Probably brother of Carlos Otto who was entrusted with the translation into English of ''Tratado de Lucta Livre''
|-
| 38 || Sebastian Knight || Proto-heteronym / Alias ||
|-
| 39 || Horace James Faber || Heteronym / Semi-heteronym || English short story writer and essayist
|-
| 40 || Navas || Heteronym / Para-heteronym || Translated Horace James Faber in Portuguese
|-
| 41 || Pantaleão || Heteronym / Proto-heteronym || Poet and prose writer
|-
| 42 || Torquato Fonseca Mendes da Cunha Rey || Heteronym / Meta-heteronym || Deceased author of a text Pantaleão decided to publish
|-
| 43 || Joaquim Moura Costa || Proto-heteronym / Semi-heteronym || Satirical poet; Republican activist; member of ''O Phosphoro''
|-
| 44 || Sher Henay || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Compiler and author of the preface of a sensationalist anthology in English
|-
| 45 || Anthony Gomes || Semi-heteronym / Character || Philosopher; author of "Historia Cómica do Affonso Çapateiro"
|-
| 46 || Professor Trochee || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Author of an essay with humorous advice for young poets
|-
| 47 || Willyam Links Esk || Character || Signed a letter written in English on 13 April 1905
|-
| 48 || António de Seabra || Pseudonym / Proto-heteronym || Literary critic
|-
| 49 || João Craveiro || Pseudonym / Proto-heteronym || Journalist; follower of Sidonio Pereira
|-
| 50 || Tagus || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''Natal Mercury'' (Durban, South Africa)
|-
| 51 || Pipa Gomes || Draft heteronym || Collaborator in ''O Phosphoro''
|-
| 52 || Ibis || Character / Pseudonym || Character from Pessoa's childhood accompanying him until the end of his life; also signed poems
|-
| 53 || Dr. Gaudencio Turnips || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || English-Portuguese journalist and humorist; director of ''O Palrador''
|-
| 54 || Pip || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Poet and author of humorous anecdotes; predecessor of Dr. Pancrácio
|-
| 55 || Dr. Pancrácio || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Storyteller, poet and creator of charades
|-
| 56 || Luís António Congo || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; columnist and presenter of Eduardo Lança
|-
| 57 || Eduardo Lança || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Luso-Brazilian poet
|-
| 58 || A. Francisco de Paula Angard || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of "Textos scientificos"
|-
| 59 || Pedro da Silva Salles / Zé Pad || Proto-heteronym / Alias || Author and director of the section of anecdotes at ''O Palrador''
|-
| 60 || José Rodrigues do Valle / Scicio || Proto-heteronym / Alias || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades; literary manager
|-
| 61 || Dr. Caloiro || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; reporter and author of ''A pesca das pérolas''
|-
| 62 || Adolph Moscow || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; novelist and author of ''Os Rapazes de Barrowby''
|-
| 63 || Marvell Kisch || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Author of a novel announced in ''O Palrador'', called  ''A Riqueza de um Doido''
|-
| 64 || Gabriel Keene || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Author of a novel announced in ''O Palrador'', called  ''Em Dias de Perigo''
|-
| 65 || Sableton-Kay || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Author of a novel announced in ''O Palrador'', called  ''A Lucta Aérea''
|-
| 66 || Morris & Theodor || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 67 || Diabo Azul || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 68 || Parry || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 69 || Gallião Pequeno || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 70 || Urban Accursio || Alias || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 71 || Cecília || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 72 || José Rasteiro || Proto-heteronym / Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of proverbs and riddles
|-
| 73 || Nympha Negra || Pseudonym || Collaborator in ''O Palrador''; author of charades
|-
| 74 || Diniz da Silva || Pseudonym / Proto-heteronym || Author of the poem "Loucura"; collaborator in ''Europe''
|-
| 75 || Herr Prosit || Pseudonym || Translator of ''[[El estudiante de Salamanca]]'' by [[José Espronceda]]
|-
| 76 || Henry More || Proto-heteronym || Author and prose writer
|-
| 77 || Wardour || Character? || Poet
|-
| 78 || J. M. Hyslop || Character? || Poet
|-
| 79 || Vadooisf ? || Character? || Poet
|-
| 80 || Nuno Reis || Pseudonym || Son of Ricardo Reis
|-
| 81 || João Caeiro || Character? || Son of Alberto Caeiro and Ana Taveira
|-
|}

===Alberto Caeiro===
[[Alberto Caeiro]] was the first heteronym which Pessoa considered to be great or seminal. Through that heteronym, Pessoa wrote exclusively poetry. According to an anthology edited by Jerónimo Pizarro and Patricio Ferrari titled ''The Collected Works of Alberto Caeiro'', "This imaginary author was a shepherd who spent most of his life in the countryside, had almost no education, and was ignorant of most literature."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro by Fernando Pessoa {{!}} New Directions |url=https://www.ndbooks.com/book/the-complete-works-of-alberto-caeiro/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=www.ndbooks.com |language=en}}</ref>

Critics note that Caeiro's poems demonstrate wide-eyed childlike wonder at nature. [[Octavio Paz]], in translating his work, refers to him as an "innocent poet".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-21 |title="Octavio Paz: Paths Towards the Untranslatable" by Christian Elguera - Latin American Literature Today |url=https://latinamericanliteraturetoday.org/2021/02/octavio-paz-paths-towards-untranslatable-christian-elguera/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |language=en-US}}</ref> Specifically, Paz observes Caeiro's willingness to accept reality as such rather than attempting to dress it up in what other poets would consider to be aesthetic. Rather than using poetry as an interpretative and transformative device, Paz argues, Caeiro simply wrote poetry as such. In other words, Caiero's method is [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] as opposed to [[Aesthetics|aesthetic]].<ref>Paz, Octavio (1983), "El Desconocido de Si Mismo: Fernando Pessoa", in ''Los Signos en Rotacion y Otros Ensayos'', Madrid: Alianza Editorial.</ref>

Such a philosophy makes Caeiro contrast greatly with his creator, Pessoa, who was deferential to modernism and thus interrogates the world around him rather than merely experience it. Pessoa regarded him as follows: "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, absence of sentiment, he makes poetry."<ref>{{citation |title=Fernando Pessoa & Co. : selected poems|last1=Pessoa|first1=Fernando |date=1998|publisher=Grove Press|last2=Zenith |first2=Richard |isbn=0802116280|edition=1st |location=New York|pages=40|oclc=38055974}}</ref>

The critic Jane M. Sheets notes that the creation of Caeiro was a necessary precursor to the later heteronyms to follow by providing a universalizing poetic vision from which others could be derived. While Caeiro was a short-lived heteronym in Pessoa's career, it established several tenets which would inevitably appear in the works of Campos, Reis, and Pessoa's own work.<ref>Sheets, Jane M., Fernando Pessoa as Anti-Poet: Alberto Caeiro, ''in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies'', Vol. XLVI, Nr. 1, January 1969, pp. 39–47.</ref>

===Ricardo Reis===

[[File:Athena_Revista_de_Arte N.1 Outubro 1924.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''Athena — Art Journal'' <br> (5 issues edited by Pessoa and Ruy Vaz in 1924–1925), published poetry by Pessoa, ''Ricardo Reis'', and ''Alberto Caeiro'', as well as essays by ''[[Álvaro de Campos]]''.]]

In a letter to William Bentley,<ref>This letter, to the director of the journal ''Portugal'', was written on 31 October 1924, to announce Pessoa's art journal ''Athena''.</ref>  Pessoa wrote that "a ''knowledge'' of the language would be indispensable, for instance, to appraise the 'Odes' of [[Ricardo Reis (heteronym)|Ricardo Reis]], whose Portuguese would draw upon him the blessing of [[António Vieira]], as his stile and diction that of [[Horace]] (he has been called, admirably I believe, 'a Greek Horace who writes in Portuguese')".<ref>Pessoa, Fernando (1999), ''Correspondência 1923–1935'', ed. Manuela Parreira da Silva. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, p.53, {{ISBN|972-37-0531-1}}.</ref>

Reis, both a character and a heteronym of Fernando Pessoa himself,<ref>{{citation|last1=Jones|first1=Marilyn Scarantino|title=Pessoa's Poetic Coterie: Three Heteronyms and an Orthonym|journal=Luso-Brazilian Review|date=1 January 1977|volume=14|issue=2|pages=254–262 |jstor=3513064}}</ref> sums up his philosophy of life in his own words, admonishing, "See life from a distance. Never question it. There's nothing it can tell you." Like Caeiro, whom he admires, Reis defers from questioning life. He prides himself as a modern pagan who urges one to seize the day and accept fate with tranquility. "Wise is the one who does not seek. The seeker will find in all things the abyss, and doubt in himself."<ref>{{citation
|author1=Reis, Ricardo (pseud.)
|title=Enquanto eu vir o sol luzir nas folhas
|website=Arquivo Pessoa
|url=http://arquivopessoa.net/textos/1980
|access-date=2021-09-12
|language=Portuguese
|date=1927-06-16
|quote=Sábio deveras o que não procura, / Que, procurando, achara o abismo em tudo / E a dúvida em si mesmo.}}</ref> In such sense, Reis shares essential affinities with Caeiro.

Believing in the [[Greek mythology|Greek gods]], yet living in a Christian Europe, Reis feels that his spiritual life is limited and true happiness cannot be attained. Such feeling—paired with his belief in Fate as a driving force for all that exists and thus disregarding freedom—leads to his [[epicureanism|epicureanist]] philosophy, which entails the avoidance of pain, defending that man should seek tranquility and calm above all else, avoiding emotional extremes.

Where Caeiro wrote freely and spontaneously, with joviality, of his basic, meaningless connection to the world, Reis writes in an austere, cerebral manner, with premeditated rhythm and structure and a particular attention to the correct use of the language when approaching his subjects of, as characterized by Richard Zenith, "the brevity of life, the vanity of wealth and struggle, the joy of simple pleasures, patience in time of trouble, and avoidance of extremes".

In his detached, intellectual approach, he is closer to Fernando Pessoa's constant rationalization, as such representing the orthonym's wish for measure and sobriety and a world free of troubles and respite, in stark contrast to Caeiro's spirit and style. As such, where Caeiro's predominant attitude is that of joviality, his sadness being accepted as natural ("My sadness is a comfort for it is natural and right."), Reis is marked by melancholy, saddened by the impermanence of all things.

Ricardo Reis is the main character of [[José Saramago]]'s 1986 novel ''[[The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Year Of The Death Of Ricardo Reis |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-year-of-the-death-of-ricardo-reis-jose-saramago?variant=39937685061666 |access-date=July 12, 2024 |website=HarperCollins Publishers}}</ref>

===Álvaro de Campos===
{{Main|Álvaro de Campos}}

[[File:Portugal Futurista 1 1917.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''Portugal Futurista'', the art journal that published ''Campos''' "Ultimatum" in 1917.]]

[[Álvaro de Campos]] manifests, in a way, as a hyperbolic version of Pessoa himself. Of the three heteronyms he is the one who feels most strongly, his motto being 'to feel everything in every way.' 'The best way to travel,' he wrote, 'is to feel.' As such, his poetry is the most emotionally intense and varied, constantly juggling two fundamental impulses: on the one hand a feverish desire to be and feel everything and everyone, declaring that 'in every corner of my soul stands an altar to a different god' (alluding to [[Walt Whitman]]'s desire to '[[Song of Myself#"Self"|contain multitudes]]'), on the other, a wish for a state of isolation and a sense of nothingness.

As a result, his mood and principles varied between violent, dynamic exultation, as he fervently wishes to experience the entirety of the universe in himself, in all manners possible (a particularly distinctive trait in this state being his [[Futurism (art)|futuristic]] leanings, including the expression of great enthusiasm as to the meaning of city life and its components) and a state of nostalgic melancholy, where life is viewed as, essentially, empty.

One of the poet's constant preoccupations, as part of his dichotomous character, is that of identity: he does not know who he is, or rather, fails at achieving an ideal identity. Wanting to be everything, and inevitably failing, he despairs. Unlike Caeiro, who asks nothing of life, he asks too much. In his poetic meditation 'Tobacco Shop' he asks:

{{blockquote|How should I know what I'll be, I who don't know what I am?<br>
To be what I think? But I think of being so many things!}}