Corrado De Vita (1905, Noto – 21 September 1987, Rome), was an Italian journalist and writer.

Early life

He was born in

Noto Noto (; ) is a city and in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily, Italy. It is southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains. It lends its name to the surrounding area Val di Noto. In 2002 Noto and its church were decl ...

but completed his studies in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, graduating in Literature, a pupil of the Dante scholar :it:Francesco Torraca. His thesis was on

Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (, ; ; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic '' Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describ ...

. He then moved to

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and collaborated with '' La Fiera Letteraria'', a cultural weekly founded and directed by Umberto Fracchia. Later he was editor of the cultural page of the newspaper '' :it:La Tribuna''. At the end of the 30s he moved to '' Il Giornale d'Italia'' for which he became a war correspondent and made a number of voyages with the

Regia Marina The , ) (RM) or Royal Italian Navy was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy () from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the changed its name to '' Marina Militare'' ("Military Navy"). Origin ...

During World War Two

As a war correspondent De Vita witnessed first-hand a number of clashes with the British fleet in which the Regia Marina suffered disastrous defeats: the

Battle of Calabria The Battle of Calabria (9 July 1940) known to the Italian Navy as the Battle of Punta Stilo, was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in the Second World War. Ships of the were opposed by vessels of the Mediterranean Fleet. ...

(July 9, 1940), the

Battle of Taranto The Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11/12 November 1940 during the Second World War between British naval forces (Admiral Andrew Cunningham) and Italian naval forces (Admiral Inigo Campioni). The Royal Navy launched the first all ...

(November 12, 1940) and the

Battle of Cape Matapan The Battle of Cape Matapan () was a naval battle during the Second World War between the Allies, represented by the navies of the United Kingdom and Australia, and the Royal Italian Navy, from 27 to 29 March 1941. Cape Matapan is on the so ...

(March 23–29, 1941). From this experience grew his first book ''The Paradise of Sailors'' (1942), a collection of partly autobiographical short stories. In the same year, after his war period, he was hired by ''

Corriere della Sera (; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...

'' as deputy editor-in-chief. During this assignment, he sometimes had some linotypists from the Corriere secretly compose the texts for the anti-fascist sheet ''Fronte'', transporting himself the heavy type from the rotary press to be printed at the home of Albe and :it:Lica Steiner, where

Elio Vittorini Elio Vittorini (; 23 July 1908 – 12 February 1966) was an Italian writer and novelist. He was a contemporary of Cesare Pavese and an influential voice in the modernist school of novel writing. His best-known work, in English speaking countries ...

also worked. The night of the occupation of Rome by the Germans (8 September 1943), in agreement with Vittorini,

Pietro Ingrao Pietro Ingrao (30 March 1915 – 27 September 2015) was an Italian politician and journalist who participated in the Italian resistance movement. For many years, he was a senior figure in the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Biography Ingrao w ...

Celeste Negarville Celeste Negarville (17 June 1905 – 18 July 1959) was an Italian communist, journalist and politician, first director of the post-war newspaper ''l'Unità'' and undersecretary for foreign affairs in the Parri and De Gasperi governments. He was ...

Gillo Pontecorvo Gilberto Pontecorvo (; 19 November 1919 – 12 October 2006) was an Italian filmmaker associated with the political cinema movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for directing the landmark war docudrama '' The Battle of Algiers'' (19 ...

and :it:Salvatore Di Benedetto, De Vita had the presses of the Corriere print a large number of copies of the single-sheet paper ''La Liberta del Popolo''. Two arrest warrants were issued for him because of this and he was saved only with the help of his friend :it:Raffaele Carrieri who kept him hidden in his Milanese home in via Borgospesso.

Postwar period

In 1945, after the war, together with :it:Michele Rago, Alfonso Gatto and Mario Bonfadini he founded the afternoon newspaper '' :it:Milano Sera'' and was its director from 15 December 1945 to 4 November 1954. In this role he promoted the creation of the Cooperative of the Popular Book (Colip), the first series of paperback economic books of the post-war period. Subsequently he directed first the Parenti publishing house and then ''

Editori Riuniti Editori Riuniti is an Italian publishing house based in Rome that publishes books and magazines on the history of socialism, socialist thought, physics and mathematics theory, and the history of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. History ...

'', of which he was president. In 1972 he returned to his war experiences with the novel ''W L'i…'' which won the Campione Prize, and also published ''Knowledge of Stefano'' (''Cognoscenza di Stefano''), with a preface by

Carlo Bo Carlo Bo (25 January 1911 – 21 July 2001) was an Italian poet, literary critic, distinguished humanist, professor and senator for life from 1984. Biography Bo was born on January 25, 1911, in Sestri Levante, Italy. From 1929 to 1934, he a ...

, a collection of verses dedicated to his son who died tragically. This work won him the

Viareggio Prize The Viareggio Prize ( or ) is an Italian literature, literary prize, first awarded in 1930. Named after the Tuscany, Tuscan city of Viareggio, it was conceived by three friends, , Carlo Salsa and Leonida Repaci, to rival the Milanese Bagutta Priz ...

. His second volume of poems ''Sopra è la Terra'' dates to 1980, with an introductory essay by Michele Rago. He died in Rome on 21 September 1987, two years after the death of his wife, the painter Caterina Castellucci, known as Katy, whom he had married in 1940.

Works

*''Sailors' Paradise'' (''Il paradiso dei marinai'') Milan, Garzanti, 1942. *''I am alive'' (''o sono vivo''), Milan, Garzanti, 1946. *"W l'i..." , Milan, Garzanti, 1972. *Acquaintance with Stefano (''Cognoscenza di Stefano''), poems , Milan, Garzanti, 1972. *''Above is the earth'' (''Sopra è la terra''), poems , Milan, Garzanti, 1980.

References

{{Authority control 1905 births 1987 deaths Italian journalists Italian poets