The Mad Fiddler

"The activity of an artist, and the work of art it produces, involve the interpenetrated coexistence of three elements, which are the material, the medial, and the formal elements of art." Fernando Pessoa, Preface to The Mad Fiddler Written between 1910 and 1917, The Mad Fiddler is one of the most storied works attributed not to a heteronym (or pseudonym or orthonym), but to Pessoa himself. Included in all major editions of his English-language poetry, *The Mad Fiddler* has seldom seen publication in the Anglo-American sphere, in part due to the difficulty (or impossibility) of an agreement about a "definitive" edition—Pessoa never published Fiddler in his lifetime, in spite of his efforts, and so while typeset versions exist in the archive, there are notes and edits from different periods. Our version is based on the collection published as part of *Poesia Inglesa*, edited by Luísa Freire, including 53 poems as well as the author's preface. This edition also includes an introduction by Jessica Sequeira. Fernando Pessoa is one of the towering figures of Modernism and 20th century Portuguese letters. He is best known today for Livro do Desassossego (The Book of Disquiet) and the poetry he wrote under the heteronyms Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, and Ricardo Reis. He published mostly in magazines, with just one book, Mensagem, and two small pamphlets of English poetry available in print during his lifetime.