Author Guide · Poetry
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When Fernando Pessoa died in Lisbon in 1935, at 47, he had published one book of poems in Portuguese, Mensagem, and a few chapbooks of verse in English. He earned his living writing English and French business letters for Lisbon firms. Most of his work stayed on paper at home, and much of it was not signed with his own name: he wrote as Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Álvaro de Campos and dozens of other invented authors, each with a biography and a style. The books that made him famous, including The Book of Disquiet, were assembled by editors after his death, the last of them in 1982. This guide covers his 11 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 11 key books · 1918–2006 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Fernando Pessoa published only Mensagem (1934) and a few English chapbooks in his lifetime. His fame rests on posthumous books: the poems of his heteronyms Álvaro de Campos (1944), Alberto Caeiro (1946) and Ricardo Reis (1946), and Livro do Desassossego (The Book of Disquiet, 1982). Start with The Book of Disquiet; the guide below explains who the heteronyms are and which English translations exist.
Where to Start with Fernando Pessoa
If you want his most famous book
→ Livro do Desassossego (1982) — the prose fragments of the bookkeeper Bernardo Soares.
If you want the heteronyms side by side
→ Fernando Pessoa & Co. (1998) — Richard Zenith’s selection of Caeiro, Reis, Campos and Pessoa himself.
If you want the simplest poems first
→ Poemas de Alberto Caeiro (1946) — Alberto Caeiro, the poet of things as they are.
If you want the only Portuguese book he published himself
→ Mensagem (1934).
11 Fernando Pessoa Books, in Order
35 Sonnets
A chapbook of sonnets written in English, which Pessoa published himself in Lisbon. He had learned the language at an English school in Durban, South Africa, where he grew up after his mother married the Portuguese consul there.
Antinous
A long English poem, issued in Lisbon by Monteiro & Co. and his first English-language book of poetry. It was followed in 1921 by English Poems, published by Olisipo.
Mensagem
Message: 44 poems on Portugal’s past greatness, honouring Luís de Camões and the age of the Portuguese discoveries as sources of possible national renewal. Published by Parceria António Maria Pereira, it was the only book of Portuguese poems he published in his lifetime. In 1934 it received the Prémio Antero de Quental in the poem category, awarded by the Estado Novo government.
Poesias de Fernando Pessoa
The first posthumous collection, gathering the poems Pessoa wrote under his own name, which readers call the “orthonym” to tell them apart from the heteronyms. Its appearance, seven years after his death, began the slow process by which his poems found readers in Portugal and Brazil.
Poesias de Álvaro de Campos
The poems of Álvaro de Campos, the heteronym Pessoa imagined as a naval engineer who studied in Glasgow, travelled to Asia and lived in London. Campos writes long free verse close to Walt Whitman in style and substance.
Poemas de Alberto Caeiro
The poems of Alberto Caeiro, including the sequence O Guardador de Rebanhos (The Keeper of Sheep). Pessoa made Caeiro an unlettered countryman with a simple, sensory outlook, whose poems celebrate nature as it is. In English, Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari translated The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro for New Directions in 2020.
Odes de Ricardo Reis
The odes of Ricardo Reis, a doctor and classicist whom Pessoa had write odes in the manner of Horace, concerned with fate and destiny. Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari’s The Complete Works of Ricardo Reis appeared from New Directions in 2026.
Livro do Desassossego
Hundreds of prose fragments credited to Bernardo Soares, an assistant bookkeeper in Lisbon who spends his days at a desk and his nights writing about dreams, boredom and the city. Pessoa called it a “factless autobiography”. It was first assembled in 1982 by Jacinto do Prado Coelho, Maria Aliete Galhoz and Teresa Sobral Cunha; four English translations followed in 1991, among them Margaret Jull Costa’s and Richard Zenith’s, then Zenith’s Penguin edition (2001) and Jull Costa’s Complete Edition (2017).
Fernando Pessoa & Co.
Richard Zenith’s English selection that sets the four main poets side by side: Caeiro, Reis, Campos and Pessoa himself. It is a practical way to hear how different the voices are before committing to one of them.
The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa
Edited and translated by Richard Zenith: a selection of his prose, signed by Pessoa himself and by his invented authors.
A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe
A second selection of the poems, again edited and translated by Richard Zenith, arranged by heteronym.
In What Order to Read Fernando Pessoa
Publication order tells you little about Pessoa, because almost everything appeared after his death, in editions put together by others. It is more useful to read by voice. A heteronym is not a pen name: Pessoa invented complete people, each with a life story, a philosophy and a way of writing, and wrote poems as if they had written them.
Begin with The Book of Disquiet in a selection, or with an anthology that puts the heteronyms side by side. Leave Mensagem until you know the other voices, so you can read it as one of them.
A reading path
1. The Book of Disquiet (1982)
2. Poemas de Alberto Caeiro (1946)
3. Poesias de Álvaro de Campos (1944)
4. Odes de Ricardo Reis (1946)
5. Mensagem (1934)
Everything Else Fernando Pessoa Published
Beyond the 11 key books: 8 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Other books in his lifetime
1
1 book · 1921
- 1921English PoemsEnglish verse, published in Lisbon by Olisipo
Posthumous editions
4
4 books · 1952–2002
- 1952Poemas dramáticoshis dramatic poems
- 1978Cartas de amor de Fernando Pessoahis love letters
- 1999Poesia, Alexander Searchthe poems of an early English-language heteronym
- 2002Quadrashis short four-line poems
Later English translations
3
3 books · 2017–2026
- 2017The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Editiontranslated by Margaret Jull Costa, with all known fragments
- 2020The Complete Works of Alberto Caeirotranslated by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari
- 2026The Complete Works of Ricardo Reistranslated by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari
The years · 1888–1982
Quick facts about Fernando Pessoa
- Known for
- Writing as dozens of invented poets, the heteronyms, each with a life and a style of his own, and for the posthumous prose of The Book of Disquiet.
- 1888
- Born in Lisbon
- 1905
- Returns from Durban to Lisbon for good
- 1918
- 35 Sonnets and Antinous, in English
- 1935
- Dies in Lisbon, aged 47
- 1982
- The Book of Disquiet first published
- Born
- 13 June 1888, Lisbon, Portugal
- Died
- 30 November 1935, Lisbon, of cirrhosis of the liver
- Childhood
- Durban, South Africa, where his stepfather was Portuguese consul; English school there
- Education
- University of Lisbon, 1906, which he left after about eight months
- Worked
- Commercial translator and writer of English and French business letters in Lisbon
- Heteronyms
- More than 70 invented authors; the main ones are Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos
The red mark is 1982: the first edition of Livro do Desassossego, The Book of Disquiet, 47 years after his death.
How Fernando Pessoa Writes: One Man, Many Poets
Pessoa distinguished a heteronym from a pseudonym. A pseudonymous work is the author’s own, under another name; a heteronymic work, he wrote, is “the work of a complete individuality made up by him.” So Alberto Caeiro is a countryman with little schooling, Ricardo Reis a doctor and classicist, Álvaro de Campos a naval engineer and dandy, and each writes in a form that fits: Caeiro in plain free verse, Reis in compact Horatian odes, Campos in long Whitmanesque outbursts.
The voices argue with one another. Caeiro’s rule, in Pessoa’s words, is that “things must be felt as they are”, while Reis writes of fate in classical forms and Campos writes like Whitman. Bernardo Soares, the bookkeeper of The Book of Disquiet, is counted only as a semi-heteronym.
Much of this was left unfinished and unpublished, and editors still disagree about what belongs where; the Pessoa scholar Teresa Sobral Cunha, for example, attributes the early parts of The Book of Disquiet to another invented author, Vicente Guedes. That is why English editions of the same book can differ so much in length and order.
Frequently asked questions about Fernando Pessoa’s books
How many books has Fernando Pessoa written?
In his lifetime he published only a few: the English chapbooks 35 Sonnets and Antinous (1918) and English Poems (1921), and one book of Portuguese poems, Mensagem (1934). Everything else was published after his death. This page lists 11 key books, from 35 Sonnets (1918) to A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe (2006).
What are Fernando Pessoa’s books in order?
35 Sonnets (1918), Antinous (1918), Mensagem (1934), Poesias de Fernando Pessoa (1942), Poesias de Álvaro de Campos (1944), Poemas de Alberto Caeiro (1946), Odes de Ricardo Reis (1946), Livro do Desassossego (1982), and in English Fernando Pessoa & Co. (1998), The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa (2001) and A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe (2006).
Where should I start with Fernando Pessoa?
With The Book of Disquiet, in a selection such as Richard Zenith’s or Margaret Jull Costa’s, read a few fragments at a time. If you would rather start with poems, choose an anthology that sets Caeiro, Reis, Campos and Pessoa side by side, such as Fernando Pessoa & Co.
What is Fernando Pessoa’s most famous book?
Livro do Desassossego, The Book of Disquiet, the prose fragments of the Lisbon bookkeeper Bernardo Soares, first published in 1982. In Portugal Mensagem (1934) is also widely known, as the only Portuguese book of poems he published himself.
What are Pessoa’s heteronyms?
Invented authors with their own biographies, beliefs and styles, under whose names Pessoa wrote. The three main ones are Alberto Caeiro, a countryman who writes plain poems about seeing things as they are; Ricardo Reis, a doctor and classicist who writes odes like Horace; and Álvaro de Campos, a naval engineer who writes long, intense free verse. Scholars have counted more than 70 such names in his papers. More writers who did the same are on my list of authors who wrote under pseudonyms.
Who was Bernardo Soares?
The invented author of The Book of Disquiet: an assistant bookkeeper in Lisbon. He is usually called a semi-heteronym rather than a full heteronym.
Which translation of The Book of Disquiet should I read?
Four English translations appeared in 1991, by Richard Zenith, Margaret Jull Costa, Alfred Mac Adam and Iain Watson. Two later editions are Zenith’s Penguin edition (2001), a selection, and Jull Costa’s The Complete Edition (New Directions, 2017), which includes all known fragments. The books differ in length and order because Pessoa never put the fragments in order himself.
Did Fernando Pessoa win any prizes?
In 1934 Mensagem received the Prémio Antero de Quental in the poem category, awarded by the Estado Novo government’s information office. He was otherwise little known at his death.
Is there a biography of Fernando Pessoa?
Yes. Richard Zenith’s Pessoa: A Biography was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2022.
When did Fernando Pessoa die?
On 30 November 1935 in Lisbon, of cirrhosis of the liver, at 47. He was born in Lisbon on 13 June 1888.
Footnotes
- Fernando Pessoa — Encyclopædia Britannica
- Fernando Pessoa — Academy of American Poets
- The Book of Disquiet — Wikipedia
- Mensagem — Wikipedia
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“O poeta é um fingidor.”
— Fernando Pessoa, the opening line of “Autopsicografia” (“Autopsychography”): “The poet is a pretender.”
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