Diana Cavallo (1931-2017) was an American novelist, educator, playwright, and performer.

Biography

Early life and education

Cavallo was born in Philadelphia in 1931, the daughter of Genuino and Josephine (Petraca) Cavallo. She grew up in an Italian neighborhood of

South Philadelphia South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west."." ''City of Philadelphia''. Retrieved November 8, ...

, where she attended public schools. Her grandparents, who lived with the family, spoke the Abruzzese dialect; Cavallo learned Italian from them, and later based two characters in her first novel on them. As a teenager, she moved with her family to

Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a Home Rule Municipality (Pennsylvania), home rule Township (Pennsylvania), township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the township had a total popul ...

. She attended the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and spent time in

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of medieval European t ...

, as a

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...

. She was a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

society.

Career

After graduation, Cavallo worked for a year at the

Philadelphia State Hospital The Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry was a psychiatric hospital located on either side of Roosevelt Boulevard, US Route 1, in Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was located in the Somerton section of the city on the border with Buck ...

as a psychiatric social worker; this experience provided the background for her first novel, ''A Bridge of Leaves'' (1961). Written in New Hampshire on a

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The program was founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDo ...

fellowship, the novel depicts a young man's

rite of passage A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of social status, status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisa ...

to adulthood. She published a nonfiction book, ''The Lower East Side: A Portrait in Time'', in 1971. Her short stories and other writings have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies, including

Helen Barolini Helen Frances Barolini ( Mollica; November 18, 1925 – March 29, 2023) was an American writer, editor, and translator. As a second-generation Italian American, Barolini often wrote on issues of Italian-American identity.How to count American imm ...

's ''The Dream Book: An Anthology of Writings by Italian American Women'' (1985). After teaching in public schools in Philadelphia and

Clifton, New Jersey Clifton is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Criss-crossed by several major highways, the city is a regional commercial hub for North Jersey and is a bedroom suburb of New York City in the New York Metropolitan Area.L ...

, and at a private school in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, Cavallo taught creative writing at

Drexel University Drexel University is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony Joseph Drexel, Anthony J. Drexel, a financier ...

and

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

. From 1969 to 1973, she taught literature and creative writing at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa (, UniPi) is a public university, public research university in Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1343, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced S ...

as a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

teaching fellow. Starting in 1980, she taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania. Cavallo wrote fictionalized essays about the neighborhood where she grew up, and performed them as monologues on stages in South Philadelphia. Her one-act play, ''Family Album'', won a competition held by the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia in 2011 and was performed there to a large audience; the play is about two sisters who become involved in controversy after one of them writes a book about their father's suicide.

Personal life

Cavallo was married to the German-American artist Karl Hagedorn (1922–2005). She died in Springfield, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 2017.

References

External links