Franco Enna (1921-1990) was the best known pseudonym of Francesco Cannarozzo, an Italian writer. He was born in Castrogiovanni (now known as

Enna Enna ( or ; grc, Ἔννα; la, Henna, less frequently ), known from the Middle Ages until 1926 as Castrogiovanni ( scn, Castrugiuvanni ), is a city and located roughly at the center of Sicily, southern Italy, in the province of Enna, towering ...

), Sicily, on the 16 September 1921, the son of a police sergeant, and died at

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

, Switzerland, on 19 July 1990. For his work, he was awarded the Eunus Prize by the Kiwanis Club of Enna, in 1986.

Writing

Francesco Cannarozzo was a poet, a playwright, a journalist, and a prolific writer of detective novels and science fiction. He was best known as Franco Enna, but also wrote under his true name as well as many English pseudonyms, including Lou Happings, Andrew Maxwell, James Douglas, Thomas Freed, Richard Shell, Lewis Allen Scott, Herry Graham, Max Reditone, and Carlton Gibbs. Much of his work was published in the science fiction magazine ''Urania''.La Voce Dell’Isola, January/February 2009, Culture section, page 26 He became very well known among science fiction fans following the publication in Urania of his novel ''L'astro lebbroso'' in March 1955. His early detective novels were largely set in foreign locations, but in the 1970s he moved to more familiar Italian locales, notably in ''Mamma lupara'' ("Mother shotgun") published in 1972, and in the series of books about Federico Sartori. Franco Enna came to be known as the writer who "provincialised" Italian crime fiction.

Italo 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 ''Cosmicomi ...

and Alberto Savinio had said that the Italian countryside could not be the background to a thriller. Enna used the format of a detective novel as an opportunity to show his view of the world. Sicily became the perfect setting to tell stories filled with intrigue and steeped in passion. Enna's best known character was inspector Federico Sartori, a Sicilian police officer plagued by incurable nostalgia, who was led easily by adventure and by love through intricate and compelling stories. Around this character Franco Enna developed a wealth of fictional episodes which had considerable public success and earned him the nickname of "the Italian Simenon".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Enna, Franco 1921 births 1990 deaths People from Enna Writers from Sicily Italian male journalists Italian male poets Italian science fiction writers 20th-century Italian novelists 20th-century Italian male writers 20th-century Italian poets Italian male novelists 20th-century Italian journalists