Domenico Vittorini (1892–1958) was an Italian-born writer and American academic.

Biography

Domenico Vittorini was born in Preturo,

L'Aquila L'Aquila ( ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of the Province of L'Aquila and the Abruzzo region in Italy. , it has a population of 69,902. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide valley of the A ...

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, ; ; , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; ), historically also known as Abruzzi, is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km (4,156 sq mi) and a population of 1.3 million. It is divided into four ...

, Italy on October 28, 1892 and died 66 years later in

Havertown, Pennsylvania Havertown is a residential suburban unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located approximately 9 miles west of the Center City, Philadelphia, center of Philadelphia. Havertown's ...

, on March 9, 1958. His wife, Helen Whitney, was a student in his first class and they were married the day following her graduation. He had two children, Helen, born in 1923, and Carlo, born in 1929. He immigrated to the United States in 1917 and received a graduate degree in English at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. He taught briefly at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

before joining the faculty at

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 ...

where he taught

Romance Languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

and

World Literature World literature is used to refer to the world's total national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European literature. ...

from 1919 to 1958. "At the University of Pennsylvania, he used both the grammar and oral methods of teaching in his elementary courses with such excellent results that, in the words of one of his colleagues, 'his students reached a level of oral proficiency and comprehension that I have seldom seen equaled.' As to the advanced courses, those for which he had a special predilection were Dante and the modern field, particularly Pirandello." Near the end of his life, Vittorini showed an amazing show of energy, creating in his last year — along with many articles and reviews — books like the revised edition of his books: ''Drama of Pirandello'', ''Attraverso i Secoli'' and ''The Age of Dante.'' During this time he also wrote ''High Points in the History of Italian Literature,'' a collection of 23 essays from Dante to current time. Unfinished works include ''Age of Boccaccio and Petrarch,'' which is a sequel to his book on Dante. One of Vittorini's most enduring works is a translation of Italian children's folk tales called ''Old Italian Tales for Children.'' A selection of these tales was re-published through the efforts of his son, Carlo Vittorini, by Crown Publishers in 1995 under the name, ''The Thread of Life.'' This full-color volume was illustrated by children's book artist Mary GrandPre. Upon his death, former students and other followers established the Vittorini Scholarship Fund at the America-Italy Society of Philadelphia which awards scholarships each year to outstanding undergraduate students of Italian literature and culture at the University of Pennsylvania.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vittorini, Domenico 1892 births 1958 deaths Italian children's writers Italian literary scholars Italian male non-fiction writers American literary scholars Princeton University alumni Temple University faculty University of Pennsylvania alumni Italian emigrants to the United States