Fernando Pessoa invented dozens of alter egos and wrote under their names, producing poetry that encompasses multiple styles, philosophies, and personalities. Richard Zenith's massive biography attempts to capture this elusive figure who lived most of his life in obscurity in Lisbon, working as a commercial translator while creating one of the twentieth century's most remarkable bodies of poetry in the trunk that was discovered after his death. Zenith, who has spent decades translating Pessoa's work, knows the poetry intimately and places it within the context of a life that was outwardly uneventful but inwardly tumultuous. Pessoa struggled with his sexuality, his drinking, and his inability to commit to relationships or complete projects. He wrote constantly but published little, leaving thousands of fragments that scholars are still organizing. The heteronyms, as Pessoa called his alter egos, were not pseudonyms but complete personalities with distinct biographies, philosophies, and poetic styles. Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Alvaro de Campos, and Bernardo Soares each developed extensive bodies of work. Zenith traces how Pessoa created and elaborated these figures, what psychological and artistic purposes they served, and how they relate to one another. The biography is a monument to a monument, an appropriate homage to a poet who multiplied himself to contain multitudes.