Guido Gustavo Gozzano (19 December 1883 – 9 August 1916) was an Italian
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
.
Biography
He was born in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, the son of Fausto Gozzano, an engineer,
and of Diodata Mautino, the daughter of Senator Mautino,
[ patriot and supporter of Giuseppe Mazzini and Massimo D'Azeglio. He spent his life in Turin and in ]Agliè
Agliè (Piedmontese: ''Ajé'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about north of Turin.
Agliè borders the following municipalities: San Martino Canavese, Torre Canavese, Ba ...
(in the Canavese
Canavese ( French: ''Canavais''; Piedmontese: ''Canavèis'') is a subalpine geographical and historical area of North-West Italy which lies today within the Metropolitan City of Turin in Piedmont. Its main town is Ivrea and it is famous for its ca ...
area), where his family owned several buildings and a large estate: Villa Il Meleto.
Of delicate health (but nevertheless practicing sports such as ice-skating
Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across an ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be perfo ...
, cycling
Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...
, and swimming), he completed primary school with mediocre results,[ and attended Liceo classico Cavour; in 1903, after secondary school, he studied law at the ]University of Turin
The University of Turin (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and continues to play an impo ...
[ but never graduated, preferring to attend the ''crepuscolari torinesi'', i.e. literature lessons by poet ]Arturo Graf
Arturo Graf (1848–1913), Italian poet, of German ancestry, was born at Athens, Greece.
He was educated at the University of Naples and became a lecturer on Italian literature in Rome, till in 1876 he was appointed professor at Turin
Turi ...
, who was well liked by the young men of letters.[
Graf exercised great influence over Gozzano.][ His ]Leopardi
Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...
-inspired pessimism was mitigated by a spiritualistic form of socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
, a combination which young Turinese intellectuals (who saw in his thought an "antidote" to the style of Gabriele D'Annunzio) particularly favoured. Graf helped Gozzano depart from D'Annunzio's canon, which imbued his early work, by "going back to the sources" and devoting himself to a thorough study of the poetry of Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
and Francesco Petrarca, which helped refine his poetic sensibility.[
In May 1907 Gozzano's weak health suddenly worsened due to severe pleurisy, which forced the poet to spend the remainder of his solitary life on the ]Italian Riviera
The Italian Riviera or Ligurian Riviera ( it, Riviera ligure; lij, Rivêa lìgure) is the narrow coastal strip in Italy which lies between the Ligurian Sea and the mountain chain formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines. Longitudinall ...
(mostly San Giuliano d'Albaro) and in mountain towns (Ceresole Reale
Ceresole Reale is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about northwest of Turin in the Orco Valley, on the border with France.
Ceresole Reale borders the following municipalitie ...
, Ronco, Bertesseno, Fiery).
1907 was also the year when his affair with young poet Amalia Guglielminetti
Amalia Guglielminetti (4 April 1881 – 4 December 1941) was an Italian poet and writer.
Life
Amalia, who had two sisters, Emma and Erminia, and a brother, Ernesto, was born in Turin to Pietro Guglielminetti and his wife Felicita Lavezzato. He ...
began, originally as an exchange of letters—the two had originally met while attending the ''Società di Cultura''.
Their love letters, exchanged in 1907-1909 but first published in 1951 as ''Lettere'', reveal a profoundly tender love, which Gozzano at times tried to shirk away from, preferring a safer "literary comradeship".
In the same year Gozzano's first collection of poems (written between 1904 and 1907), ''La via del rifugio,'' appeared under the imprint of the Turin publisher Streglio.
In 1909 Gozzano gave up law studies altogether and devoted himself completely to poetry. Two years later, he published his ''opus magnum'', the book ''I colloqui'' (literally "Conversations"), with the 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 ...
ese publisher Treves. The poems therein are in three sections, titled ''Il giovenile errore'' (lit. "The youthful error"), ''Alle soglie'' (lit. "At the threshold"), and ''Il reduce'' (lit. "The survivor"). "I colloqui" met much success with critics and readers, and prompted several offers of collaboration with important magazines and newspapers, among which were ''La Stampa
''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy.
History and profile
The paper was fou ...
'', ''La Lettura'', and ''La Donna''. The latter provided Gozzano with a fertile forum to publish both prose and poetry.
Gozzano's worsening health prompted the decision to travel to India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, looking for a climate more suited to his breathing impairment. His cruise-ship left Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
on 16 February 1912, returning in May 1913 after visits to Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...
and Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
. He did not get better, but the travel, together with extensive reading, provided the inspiration for the texts that were to be collected and posthumously published (in 1917) under the title ''Verso la cuna del mondo'' (lit., "Towards the world's cradle").
The last years of Gozzano's life yielded little literary production. In March 1914, he published in "La Stampa" some fragments of the long poem ''Le Farfalle'' (lit. "The butterflies"), also known as ''Epistole entomologiche'' (lit. "Entomological epistles"), which he would never complete. The collection of six fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
s he had written for the children's magazine Corriere dei Piccoli, titled ''I tre talismani'' (lit. "The three talismans"), was also published at this time. An avid theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
and movie fan, Gozzano adapted some of his short stories for production.
Between 1914 and 1915 he composed a few unremarkable poems about World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, which met little success with his audience.
In 1916, shortly before his death, Gozzano began writing the script for a film about Francis of Assisi
Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...
, which was never filmed. The poet was laid to rest in Agliè. He was an atheist.[Carlo Calcaterra, ''Con Guido Gozzano e altri poeti'', Zanichelli, 1944, p. 155.]
Works
Poetry
*''La via del rifugio'' (1907)
*''I colloqui'' (1911)
*''Tutte le poesie'' (editor A. Rocca, ed., introduction by M. Guglielminetti; 1980. Includes all Gozzano's poems)
Prose
*''I tre talismani'' (1914)
*''La principessa si sposa. Fiabe'' (1918)
*''Verso la cuna del mondo. Lettere dall'India (1912-1913)'' (with preface by G.A. Borgese, 1917, first edition)
*''L'altare del passato'' (1918)
*''L'ultima traccia'' (1919)
*''Primavere romantiche'' (1924)
*''La moneta seminata e altri scritti con un saggio di varianti e una scelta di documenti'' (F. Antonicelli, ed.; 1968)
*''Verso la Cuna del mondo - Lettere dall'India'' (Flaminio di Biagi, ed., with afterword by Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti
Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti (; 14 September 1929 – 9 April 2017) was an Italian academic, literary critic and poet. He taught at the University of Turin from 1967 until his death in 2017. He was considered to be one of the most important lit ...
, 2005; first complete edition)
*''Requiems & Nightmares'' (2015)
Letters
*''Lettere d'amore di Guido Gozzano e Amalia Guglielminetti'' (S. Asciamprener, ed., 1951)
*''Lettere a Carlo Vallini con altri inediti'' (Giorgio Di Rienzo, ed., 1971)
Sources
* W. Vaccari, ''La vita e i pallidi amori di Guido Gozzano'', Milano, Omnia editrice, 1958.
* Flaminio Di Biagi, ''Sotto l'arco di Tito: le "Farfalle" di Guido Gozzano'', Trento, La Finestra editrice 1999.
* Marina Rota, ''Amalia, se Voi foste uomo...'' Golem Ed., Turin, 2016
*Patrick Worsnip, ''Sleeping with Gozzano'', PN Review, Issue 229, Manchester May–June 2016, pp. 41–45
References
*Part of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Italian-language Wikipedia article (retrieved 22 October 2006).
*Some biographical and bibliographical details come from the Fabbri edition of Gozzano's poems (Guido Gozzano, ''Poesie'', introduzione e note di Giorgio Barberi Squarotti, BUR/Fabbri 1997).
External links
Enciclopædia Britannica article about Gozzano
“Guido Gozzano, conversations with poetry”
An online exhibition on Gozzano from the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
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Texts from Italian Wikisource
Quotes from Italian Wikiquote
Biography and photographs
All the poems, in Italian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gozzano, Guido
1883 births
1916 deaths
Writers from Turin
Italian male poets
University of Turin alumni
20th-century Italian poets
20th-century Italian male writers
Tuberculosis deaths in Italy
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Italian atheists
Infectious disease deaths in Piedmont