Writes “Epithalamium,” a long, sexually explicit poem in English.

1914 Publishes, in a magazine, his first poems as an adult. Creates, between March and June, his three main heteronyms: Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, and Ricardo Reis. Each will sign a substantial body of poetry in Portuguese, and also several hundred pages of prose will be credited to Campos and Reis. In their writings the three heteronyms dialogue with each other and with other, lesser heteronyms. In November Aunt Anica moves to Switzerland with her daughter and son-in-law. For the next six years Pessoa will live in rented rooms or apartments.

1915 The magazine Orpheu, which introduces modernism into Portugal, is founded by a small group of poets and artists led by Pessoa and Sá-Carneiro. In the magazine’s two issues, Pessoa publishes some of his major works, including a “static drama” called The Mariner (his only finished play), the six “intersectionist” poems of a sequence titled Slanting Rain, and three long poems attributed to Álvaro de Campos: “Opiary,” “The Triumphal Ode,” and “The Maritime Ode.” Writes “Antinoüs,” a long, homoerotic poem in English. Embarks on the translation, into Portuguese, of works by Helena Blavatsky, C. W. Leadbeater, and other theosophical writers (six books published in 1915-16). Alberto Caeiro “dies” of tuberculosis, but poems will continue to be written in his name until 1930. In December Pessoa creates Raphael Baldaya, a heteronymic astrologer.

1916 In March he begins to write automatically, or mediumistically, receiving “communications” from Henry More (1614-1687), a certain Wardour, the voodooist (who sometimes signs himself Joseph Balsamo, alias Count Cagliostro), and other astral spirits. During the next two years he will produce, in a childish script, several hundred pages of automatic writing, mostly in English and largely concerned with his desire to meet a woman who will “cure” him of his virginity. Mário de Sá-Carneiro commits suicide in a Paris hotel on April 26.

1917 In May submits The Mad Fiddler, a collection of poems, to an English publisher, who rejects the manuscript. In October publishes, in Portugal Futurista, Álvaro de Campos’s Ultimatum , a manifesto that vilifies Europe’s political leaders and cultural luminaries. The magazine is seized from the newsstands by the police in November. A coup d’état in December establishes Sidónio Pais as dictator.

1918 Self-publishes two chapbooks of his English poems, Antinoüs (written in 1915) and 35 Sonnets. Sends copies of the books to various British journals and receives fairly positive reviews. Sidónio Pais is assassinated on December 14. Pessoa becomes a fervent post-mortem votary of the charismatic (but ineffectual) leader.

1919 On January 19 a monarchy is proclaimed in Lisbon and Oporto by military juntas organized in the preceding months. The royalist forces, quickly subdued in the south, are defeated in the north one month later. Ricardo Reis, a supporter of the monarchy, supposedly emigrates to Brazil. Pessoa actively collaborates in Acção, a small, right-wing journal highly critical of the Republican government. In October his stepfather dies in Pretoria. In November Ophelia Queiroz, nineteen years old, is hired as a secretary in a firm where Pessoa sometimes works.

1920 On March 1 Pessoa writes his first love letter to Ophelia Queiroz. Besides exchanging letters, they meet each other for walks and ride the streetcar together. He breaks off with her in a letter dated November 29. In late March Pessoa’s family—his mother and three grown children from her second marriage—arrives in Lisbon. His two half brothers soon leave for England, where they will study at the University of London, get married, and settle. Pessoa, his mother, and his half sister, Henriqueta, rent an apartment on the Rua Coelho da Rocha, 16, where Pessoa will reside until his death.

1921 Pessoa founds a small company and publishing house, Olisipo, which publishes, in December, two books of his English poems, whose contents include “Epithalamium” (written in 1913) and a revised version of “Antinoüs.”

1922 Olisipo republishes Canções (Songs), a book of poems by the openly homosexual António Botto (first published in 1920).