Giorgio Caproni (

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

, 7 January 1912 – 22 January 1990,

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

) 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 ...

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

and

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

, especially from French. His work was also part of the literature event in the art competition at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

Early years

Caproni left Livorno at the age of ten to complete his primary studies in

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 ...

, where he studied first music, then literature, and where he wrote his first poems. After participating in

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 ...

as a member of the

Italian resistance movement The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...

, he spent many years as an elementary school teacher.

Career

In 1945, he went to

, where he contributed to a number of journals; besides poetry he also wrote criticism and

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

s and contributed translations. His book ''Il passaggio di Enea'' collected all of his poems written to 1956 and reflected his experiences in combat during World War II and serving with the Resistance. He also oversaw a series of translations of foreign works, chief among which was '' Death on Credit'' by

Louis-Ferdinand Céline Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( , ) was a French novelist, polemicist and physician. His first novel ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the ''Pri ...

. In 1959, Caproni and fellow poets Antonio Seccareccia, Elio Filippo Accrocca, and Ugo Royal began the

Frascati Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated with ...

National Poetry Prize, an annual poetry competition for previously unpublished works. The annual prize began as a

cask A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...

of wine; in 1974, it was changed to a cash prize of 1,000,000

Italian lira The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

. Caproni's poetry touches on a number of recurring themes, most notably Genoa, his mother and birthplace, and travel, and combines a sense of refinement in both meter and style to immediacy and clarity of feeling. Among his other works: *''Le stanze della funicolare'' (1952) *''Il seme del piangere'' (1959) *''Congedo del viaggiatore cerimonioso & altre prosopopee'' (1965) *''Il muro della terra'' (1975) *''Il franco cacciatore'' (1982) *''Conte di Kevenhüller'' (1986) *''L'opera in versi'' (1998), containing his complete output *''Per lei''

References

External links

Giorgio Caproni
on

Enciclopedia Treccani The ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' (Italian for "Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters, and Arts"), best known as ''Treccani'' for its developer Giovanni Treccani or ''Enciclopedia Italiana'', is an Italian-language en ...

Giorgio Caproni
on

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caproni, Giorgio 1912 births 1990 deaths Italian anti-fascists Italian male poets Italian educators Italian resistance movement members People from Livorno 20th-century Italian poets 20th-century Italian male writers Olympic competitors in art competitions Italian military personnel of World War II