O livro de Caeiro

Pessoa conceived and projected the edition and publication of the book of poems
of his master Alberto Caeiro, never having concluded this project. Beginning
with the analysis of his plans for the edition and publication of Caeiro’s poems,
I will focus on the decisive position of this work in Pessoa’s literary universe,
pointing out some of the fundamental diffi culties implied in the project of publishing it in form of a book.
Beyond the problem of publishing one fi nds the more fundamental question of
the impossibility of the constitution of what would be the book of Caeiro. Th is
case can be seen as the particular manifestation of three fundamental problems
implied in the question of the book: the problem of totality, in opposition to the
fragment, of materiality, as opposed to ideality, and the problem of authorship.