Elio Vittorini (; 23 July 1908 – 12 February 1966) was an Italian writer and novelist. He was a contemporary of
Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese ( , ; 9 September 1908 – 27 August 1950) was an Italian novelist, poet, short story writer, translator, literary critic, and essayist. He is often referred to as one of the most influential Italian writers of his time.
Early li ...
and an influential voice in the
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
school of novel writing. His best-known work is the
anti-fascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
novel ''
Conversations in Sicily'', for which he was jailed when it was published in 1941. The first U.S. edition of the novel, published in 1949, included an introduction from
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
, whose style influenced Vittorini and that novel in particular.
Life
Vittorini was born in
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
,
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
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, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
, and throughout his childhood moved around Sicily with his father, a railroad worker. Several times he ran away from home, culminating in his leaving Sicily for good in 1924. For a brief period, he found employment as a construction worker in the
Julian March
Venezia Giulia, traditionally called Julian March (Serbo-Croatian, Slovene: ''Julijska krajina'') or Julian Venetia ( it, Venezia Giulia; vec, Venesia Julia; fur, Vignesie Julie; german: Julisch Venetien) is an area of southeastern Europe wh ...
, after which he moved to
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
to work as a type corrector (a line of work he abandoned in 1934 due to
lead poisoning
Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. The brain is the most sensitive. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, inferti ...
). Around 1927 his work began to be published in literary journals. In many cases, separate editions of his novels and short stories from this period, such as ''The Red Carnation'' were not published until after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, due to fascist censorship. In 1937, he was expelled from the
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The ...
for writing in support of the
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
side in the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
.
In 1939 he moved, this time to
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. An anthology of
American literature
American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...
which he edited was, once more, delayed by censorship. Remaining an outspoken critic of
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
's regime, Vittorini was arrested and jailed in 1942. He joined the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...
and began taking an active role in the
Resistance, which provided the basis for his 1945 novel ''Men and not Men''. Also in 1945, he briefly became the editor of the Italian Communist daily ''
L'Unita '' and weekly ''
Il Politecnico
''Il Politecnico'' ( Italian: ''The Polytechnic'') was a Communist cultural and literary magazine published in Milan, Italy, between 1945 and 1947. In the debut editorial it was stated that the magazine was inspired by the homonymous journal whic ...
''.
After the war, Vittorini chiefly concentrated on his work as editor, helping publish work by young Italians such as
Calvino
Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the ''Cosmicomic ...
and
Fenoglio. His last major published work of fiction during his lifetime was 1956's ''Erica and her Sisters''. The news of the events of the
Hungarian Uprising deeply shook his convictions in Communism and made him decide to largely abandon writing, leaving unfinished work which was to be published in unedited form posthumously. For the remainder of his life, Vittorini continued in his post as an editor. In 1959, he co-founded with Calvino ''
Il Menabò'', a cultural journal devoted to literature in the modern industrial age. He also ran as a candidate on an
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country.
Founded in Genoa in 1892, ...
list. He died in Milan in 1966. He was an atheist.
[Berti Arnoaldi, Francesco, ''L'amico cattolico'', Edizioni Pendragon, 2005, p. 11]
Partial bibliography
*''Racconti di piccola borghesia'' (1931)
*''Il garofano rosso'' (Translated as ''The Red Carnation'', 1933)
*''Conversazione in Sicilia'' (Translated as ''
Conversations in Sicily'', 1941)
*''Uomini e no'' (Translated as ''Men and not Men'', 1945)
*''Le donne di Messina'' (1949) (Translated by
Frances Frenaye
Frances Frenaye (1908-1996) was an American translator of French and Italian literature.Eric Pace ''The New York Times'', April 15, 1998. She translated work by writers including Balzac, Carlo Levi, Ignazio Silone and Elie Wiesel.
Works
* Natal ...
, ''Women of Messina'', 1973)
*''Erica e suoi fratelli'' (Translated as ''Erica'', 1956)
He also translated the works of
Defoe Defoe may refer to:
People
*Defoe (surname), most notably English author Daniel Defoe
Places
*Defoe, Webster County, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Other uses
*Defoe (comics), a zombie story
*Defoe Shipbuilding Company, a former ship ...
,
Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widel ...
,
Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...
,
Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...
,
Lawrence
Lawrence may refer to:
Education Colleges and universities
* Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States
* Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States
Preparator ...
,
Maugham Maugham is a surname most commonly associated with the English literary family. The name is a variant of Malham, Malgham, and Malghum. Families with the name originate from the area surrounding Malham and Kirkby Malham.
Well-known persons with this ...
and others into Italian.
References
Sources
Biographies
*''Un padre e un figlio. Biografia famigliare di Elio Vittorini'' by Demetrio Vittorini. Bellinzona
witzerland Salvioni, 2000. (Demetrio Vittorini is Elio Vittorini's son.)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vittorini, Elio
1908 births
1966 deaths
Writers from Sicily
People from Syracuse, Sicily
People of Emilian descent
Italian resistance movement members
Italian anti-fascists
Italian Communist Party politicians
20th-century Italian politicians
20th-century Italian translators
20th-century Italian novelists
20th-century Italian male writers
Italian newspaper editors
Italian male journalists
Italian magazine founders