Mario Tobino (16 January 1910,

Viareggio Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as ...

Province of Lucca The province of Lucca ( it, provincia di Lucca) is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Lucca. It has an area of and a total population of about 390,000. There are 33 '' comuni'' (singular: ''comune'') in the pr ...

, Tuscany – 11 December 1991,

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) was an Italian poet, writer and psychiatrist. A prolific writer, he began as a poet but later wrote mostly novels. His works are characterized by a strong autobiographical inspiration, and usually deal with social and psychological themes.

Education

Mario Tobino completed his degree in medicine in 1936, after which he embarked on a career that centered on the mental hospital setting, treating people with mental disabilities.

Medical career

Mario Tobino's work took him to Libya in June 1940. He worked as a doctor in Libya until October 1941, when war broke out in the country and he had to flee. His experience of Libya was recorded in the book ''Il deserto della Libia'', which came out in 1952. In 2015, Staging Memory by Stefania Del Monte dedicates a whole section to the book. After returning from Libya, Tobino took the job of doctor in the Mental Hospital of

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one ...

. He worked in the hospital for over four decades.

Works

The period between spring and autumn of 1944 saw Tobino become an ardent supporter of the war of national liberation. His participation in the liberation efforts as a partisan developed him immensely as a writer. The experience morphed into the book ''Clandestino'', which was published in 1962 and won him the

Premio Strega 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 ...

. Tobino had published books before ''Clandestino''. In 1953, he brought out ''Libere donne di Magliano'', a work that established his place among important Italian writers. Tobino wrote another prize-winning book in 1972. His ''Per le antiche scale'' was the winner of the

Premio Campiello The ''Premio Campiello'' is an annual Italian literary prize. A Jury of Literary Experts (''Giuria di letterati'' in Italian) identifies books published during the year and, in a public hearing, selects five of those as finalists. These books ar ...

that year. Tobino was a tireless writer. He was prolific even in his later life. In 1982 he published ''Gli ultimi giorni di Magliano'', followed by ''La ladra'' in 1984 and in 1988 ''Tre amici''. This last phase of his writing career was also marked by several literary prizes. He received the Premio Pirandello on 10 December 1991 in Agrigento. The next day he died.

References

1910 births 1991 deaths People from Viareggio Italian male poets Italian psychiatrists Strega Prize winners Viareggio Prize winners 20th-century Italian poets 20th-century Italian physicians Premio Campiello winners 20th-century Italian male writers {{Italy-poet-stub