Pietro Citati (20 February 1930 – 28 July 2022) was an Italian writer and literary critic. He was born in

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 ...

. He wrote critical biographies of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...

and

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

as well as a short memoir on his thirty-year friendship with

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 ...

. In ''Kafka'', Pietro Citati had the great writer declare: "'I am like you, I am a man like you, I suffer and rejoice as you do, like a meticulous and buoyant angel, a being who lives far away in a world that did not belong even to him." From 1973 to 1988, he contributed to the cultural section of ''

Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...

'' and was the literary critic for ''

la Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...

'' between 1988 and 2011, before returning to write for ''Corriere della Sera''. He died at his villa in

Roccamare Roccamare is a village in Tuscany, central Italy, administratively a frazione of the comune of Castiglione della Pescaia, province of Grosseto. At the time of the 2001 census its population amounted to 107. Geography Roccamare is about 25 ...

, in the municipality of

Castiglione della Pescaia Castiglione della Pescaia (), regionally simply abbreviated as Castiglione, is an ancient seaside town in the province of Grosseto, in Tuscany, central Italy. The modern city grew around a medieval 12th century fortress ( it, castello) and a large ...

, on 28 July 2022 at the age of 92.

Bibliography

* ''Goethe'' Dial Press (1974) * ''Alexander the Great'' 1974 * ''Tolstoy'' Schocken (1986) * ''Kafka'', Milano, Rizzoli, 1987 * ''La colomba pugnalata'' 1995 * ''La mente colorata'' 2002 * ''La morte della farfalla'' 2006

Filmography

''Dans la peau d'Italo Calvino'' (2012)
documentary by

Damian Pettigrew Damian (also Damien) Pettigrew (March 10, 1963) is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, Film producer, producer, author, and multimedia artist, best known for his cinematic portraits of Balthus, Federico Fellini, and Jean Giraud. Released theatri ...

with Pietro Citati and

Neri Marcorè Neri Marcorè (born 31 July 1966) is an Italian actor, voice actor, impressionist, television presenter and singer. He has appeared in 22 films and television shows since 1994. He starred in the film '' Incantato'', which was entered into the 20 ...

in the role of

References

External links

* __NOTOC__ 1930 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Italian writers Italian literary critics Italian male non-fiction writers Strega Prize winners La Repubblica people Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa alumni University of Pisa alumni Writers from Florence Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Grand Officers of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic {{Italy-writer-stub