Portugal, o primeiro aviso de Mensagem: 106 documentos inéditos

Abstract

When we think we know Fernando Pessoa, a new surprise arises: this time, one related to the genesis of Mensagem, the most established and celebrated book of the Pessoan canon. That book, published in 1934 with a title only finalized at the time of the typographical proofs, was initially called Portugal—an inscription dating from 1910, when Pessoa, disappointed with the Portuguese monarchy and seeking to imitate Luís de Camões, began a series of Cantos under that general name, though not intending to reconstruct a national history merely linear or celebratory (as usual in Pessoa, both irony and complexity abound). Archived among fragments attributed to various dramas – in the envelopes with the number 11 of the Pessoan literary estate –, Portugal, the first notice of Mensagem, is revealed in this contribution, including more than one hundred unpublished documents that may guide new critical incursions and invite a rediscovery of Mensagem.