Vasco Pratolini (19 October 1913 – 12 January 1991) was an Italian writer of the 20th century. He was nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

three times.

Biography

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 ...

, Pratolini worked at various jobs before entering the literary world thanks to his acquaintance with Elio Vittorini. In 1938 he founded, together with

Alfonso Gatto Alfonso Gatto (17 July 1909 – 8 March 1976) was an Italian writer. Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, he is one of the foremost Italian poets of the 20th century and a major exponent of hermetic poetry. Biography Gatto stu ...

, the magazine ''

Campo di Marte Firenze Campo di Marte (or, simply, Firenze Campo Marte) is the third railway station of Florence and the eighth station of Tuscany and the biggest station in south Florence. The station is mostly used by commuters going to Florence coming from ...

''. His work is based on firm political principles and much of it is rooted in the ordinary life and sentiments of ordinary, modest working-class people in Florence. 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

he fought with the Italian partisans against the

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 ...

. After the war he also worked in the cinema, collaborating as

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

to films such as

Luchino Visconti Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the ...

's ''

Rocco e i suoi fratelli ''Rocco and His Brothers'' ( it, Rocco e i suoi fratelli) is a 1960 drama film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori, Katina Paxinou, Roger Hanin, Paolo Stoppa, and Claudia Cardinale in one of h ...

'',

Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...

's '' Paisà'' and

Nanni Loy Nanni Loy (born Giovanni Loi; 23 October 1925 – 21 August 1995) was an Italian film, theatre and TV director. Specifically, Nanni Loy was Sardinian, and one of several notable Sardinian film makers, including Franco Solinas. Biography Lo ...

's '' Le quattro giornate di Napoli''. In 1954 and 1961

Valerio Zurlini Valerio Zurlini (19 March 1926 – 26 October 1982) was an Italian film director, stage director and screenwriter. Biography During his law studies in Rome, he started working in the theatre. In 1943, he joined the Italian resistance. Zurlin ...

turned two of his novels, ''

Le ragazze di San Frediano ''Le ragazze di San Frediano'' (English: ''The Girls of San Frediano'') is a 1949 novel by Italian author Vasco Pratolini. Plot The novel is set in Florence at the end of the Second World War. The story follows the escapades of a Florentine mech ...

'' and ''Cronaca familiare'', into films. The

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

Kirill Molchanov Kirill Vladimirovich Molchanov (russian: Кирилл Владимирович Молчанов; 7 September 1922 – 14 March 1982) was a Russian and Soviet composer. He was appointed director of the Bolshoi, at the time political disfavour had ...

produced the Russian-language opera ''Via del Corno'' (Улица дель Корно) based on an anti-fascist story by Pratolini, to his own Russian libretto in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, 1960. His most important literary works are the novels ''Cronaca familiare'' (1947), ''Cronache di poveri amanti'' (1947) and ''Metello'' (1955). He died in

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 ...

in 1991.

Works

* ''Il tappeto verde'' (1941) * ''Via de' magazzini'' (1941) * ''Le amiche'' (1943) * '' Il quartiere'' (1943), translated as ''The Naked Streets'' (USA) or ''A Tale of Santa Croce'' (UK) * ''Cronaca familiare'' (1947), translated as "Family Chronicle" or ''Two Brothers'' * ''Cronache di poveri amanti'' (1947), translated as ''A Tale of Two Poor Lovers'' * '' Diario sentimentale'' (1947) * ''Mestiere da vagabondo'', 1947 (collection of stories) * ''

Un eroe del nostro tempo The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizin ...

'' (1947), translated in 1951 by Eric Mosbacher as "A Hero of Our Time" * ''

'' (1949), translated as ''The Girls of Sanfrediano'' * ''La domenica della povera gente'' (1952) * ''Lungo viaggio di Natale'' (1954) * ''Metello'' (1955), translated by Raymond Rosenthal in 1968 * ''

Lo scialo Lo may refer to any of the following: Arts and entertainment * '' Lo!'', the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort * L.O., a fictional character in the Playhouse Disney show Happy Monster Band * ''Lo'' (film), a 2009 indep ...

'' (1960) * ''La costanza della ragione'' (1963), translated as ''Bruno Santini. A Novel'' * ''Allegoria e derisione'' (1966) * ''La mia città ha trent'anni'' (1967) * ''Il mannello di Natascia'' (1985)

References

External links

Biography

Martha King's English translation of ''Cronaca familiare'' as ''Family Chronicle.'' 1913 births 1991 deaths Writers from Florence 20th-century Italian novelists 20th-century Italian male writers 20th-century Italian screenwriters Italian male screenwriters Italian anti-fascists Viareggio Prize winners Italian magazine founders {{Italy-writer-stub