Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɨɾˈnɐ̃du pɨˈsoɐ]; b. June 13, 1888 in Lisbon, Portugal — d. November 30, 1935 in the same city) was a Portuguese poet and writer.

He was also a literary critic and translator. The critic Harold Bloom referred to him in the book The Western Canon as the most representative poet of the twentieth century, along with Pablo Neruda. He was bilingual in Portuguese and English, and fluent in French.

In 1893, when Pessoa was five, his father died of tuberculosis. The following year his younger brother, aged only one, died too and his mother married again in 1895. In the beginning of 1896, he moved with his mother to Durban, capital of the former British Colony of Natal, where his stepfather was appointed Portuguese consul.

The young Pessoa received his early education at St. Joseph Convent School, a catholic school run by Irish and French nuns. He moved to the Durban High School in April, 1899, becoming fluent in English and developing an appreciation for English literature.

With the "Matriculation Examination", for admission to the University of Cape Town, in November, 1903, he was awarded the "Queen Victoria Memorial Prize", recently created, for the best paper in English. While preparing to enter university, he also attended the Durban Commercial School, during one year, in the evening shift. This technical knowledge would be a very important background to his future life, in Lisbon.

Meanwhile he started writing short stories in English, some under the name of David Merrick, that unfortunately he left unfinished .

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