Graziella "Lalla" Romano (11 November 1906 in
Demonte
Demonte is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin and about southwest of Cuneo, in the Valle Stura di Demonte.
Demonte borders the following municipalities: Aisone, ...
– 26 June 2001 in
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 ...
) was an Italian novelist, poet, artist and journalist.
Life and work
Romano was born as Graziella Romano in Demonte in 1906 from a noteworthy
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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ese family. Her great-uncle was mathematician and glottologist
Giuseppe Peano
Giuseppe Peano (; ; 27 August 1858 – 20 April 1932) was an Italian mathematician and glottologist. The author of over 200 books and papers, he was a founder of mathematical logic and set theory, to which he contributed much notation. The sta ...
. Romano was originally interested in painting. She attended the
University of Turin
The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...
where she studied with art historian
Lionello Venturi before
Cesare Pavese piqued her interest in writing. She graduated with a degree in literature then worked as a librarian and teacher. In those years she started dating
Giovanni Ermiglia, a
philosophy student from
Sanremo
Sanremo (; lij, Sanrémmo(ro) or , ) or San Remo is a city and comune on the Mediterranean coast of Liguria, in northwestern Italy. Founded in Roman times, it has a population of 55,000, and is known as a tourist destination on the Italian Rivie ...
, and wrote several poems dedicated to him which have been later collected together with other previous unpublished texts in ''Poesie per Giovanni'' (2007). During
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 opposing ...
she joined with the Resistance. After the war she became noted for writings that drew on personal and family experiences.
Legacy
Romano continued to paint throughout her life. In 2009, a retrospective of her paintings was held in
Aosta
Aosta (, , ; french: Aoste , formerly ; frp, Aoûta , ''Veulla'' or ''Ouhta'' ; lat, Augusta Praetoria Salassorum; wae, Augschtal; pms, Osta) is the principal city of Aosta Valley, a bilingual region in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of ...
. Her former house in Milan has been converted to a museum to preserve her work.
Partial bibliography
Novels
*''Le metamorfosi'', Turin, 1951;
*''Maria'', Turin, 1953;
*''Tetto murato'', Turin, 1957;
*''Diario di Grecia'', Padua, 1960;
*''L'uomo che parlava solo'', Turin, 1961;
*''La penombra che abbiamo attraversato'', Turin, 1964;
*''Le parole tra noi leggere'', Turin, 1969; (winner of the
Strega Prize
The Strega Prize ( it, Premio Strega ) is the most prestigious Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published ...
)
*''L'ospite'', Turin, 1973 ;
*''Una giovinezza inventata'', Turin, 1979;
*''Inseparabile'', Turin, 1981;
*''Nei mari estremi'', Turin, 1987;
*''Un sogno del Nord'', Turin, 1989.
Poetry
*''Fiore'', Turin, 1941;
*''L'autunno'', Milan, 1955;
*''Giovane è il tempo'', Turin, 1974.
*''Poesie per Giovanni'', Ventimiglia, 2007.
Notes
References
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Romano, Lalla
1906 births
2001 deaths
People from Demonte
Italian women journalists
Italian women poets
Strega Prize winners
Italian women novelists
20th-century Italian poets
20th-century Italian novelists
20th-century Italian women writers
20th-century Italian women artists
Italian painters
Italian contemporary artists