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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 Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
school of novel writing. His best-known work, in English speaking countries, is the
anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...
novel '' Conversations in Sicily'', for which he was jailed when it was published in 1941. The first U.S. edition of the novel, published in 1949, included an introduction from
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
, whose style influenced Vittorini and that novel in particular. Vittorini was one of the most prominent writers of Italian Neorealism in literature. His own works of fiction, along with his translations of such American and English writers as
William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...
, D. H. Lawrence,
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...
, and
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
, had a considerable impact on the movement and on Italian post-war literature.


Life

Vittorini was born in
Syracuse, Sicily Syracuse ( ; ; ) is a historic city on the Italian island of Sicily, the capital of the Italian province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek and Roman history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace ...
, and throughout his childhood moved around Sicily with his father, a railroad worker. Several times he ran away from home, culminating in his leaving Sicily for good in 1924. For a brief period, he found employment as a construction worker in the
Julian March The Julian March ( Croatian and ), also called Julian Venetia (; ; ; ), is an area of southern Central Europe which is currently divided among Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia.
, after which he moved to
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
to work as a type corrector (a line of work he abandoned in 1934 due to
lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, infertility, numbness and paresthesia, t ...
). Around 1927 his work began to be published in literary journals. In many cases, separate editions of his novels and short stories from this period, such as ''The Red Carnation'' were not published until after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, due to fascist censorship. In 1937, he was expelled from the
National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party (, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian fascism and as a reorganisation of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The party ruled the Kingdom of It ...
for writing in support of the Republican side in the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. In 1939 he moved, this time 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 ...
. An anthology of
American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the British colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also ...
which he edited was, once more, delayed by censorship. Remaining an outspoken critic of
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
's regime, Vittorini was arrested and jailed in 1942. He joined the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
and began taking an active role in the Resistance, which provided the basis for his 1945 novel ''Men and not Men''. Also in 1945, he briefly became the editor of the Italian Communist daily '' L'Unita '' and weekly '' Il Politecnico ''. After the war, Vittorini chiefly concentrated on his work as editor, helping publish work by young Italians such as Calvino and Fenoglio. His last major published work of fiction during his lifetime was 1956's ''Erica and her Sisters''. The news of the events of the Hungarian Uprising deeply shook his convictions in Communism and made him decide to largely abandon writing, leaving unfinished work which was to be published in unedited form posthumously. For the remainder of his life, Vittorini continued in his post as an editor. In 1959, he co-founded with Calvino '' Il Menabò'', a cultural journal devoted to literature in the modern industrial age. He also ran as a candidate on an
Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...
list. He died in Milan in 1966. He was an atheist.Berti Arnoaldi, Francesco, ''L'amico cattolico'', Edizioni Pendragon, 2005, p. 11


Partial bibliography

*''Racconti di piccola borghesia'' (1931) *''Il garofano rosso'' (Translated as ''The Red Carnation'', 1933) *''Conversazione in Sicilia'' (Translated as '' Conversations in Sicily'', 1941) *''Uomini e no'' (Translated as ''Men and not Men'', 1945) *''Il Sempione strizza l'Ochio al Frejus'' (1947) (Translated as ''Tune for an Elephant'', 1955) *''Le donne di Messina'' (1949) (Translated by Frances Frenaye, ''Women of Messina'', 1973) *''Erica e suoi fratelli'' (Translated as ''Erica'', 1956) He also translated the works of Defoe, Poe,
Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...
, Faulkner, Lawrence, Maugham and others into Italian.


References


Sources

Biographies *''Un padre e un figlio. Biografia famigliare di Elio Vittorini'' by Demetrio Vittorini. Bellinzona witzerland Salvioni, 2000. (Demetrio Vittorini is Elio Vittorini's son.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vittorini, Elio 1908 births 1966 deaths Writers from Sicily People from Syracuse, Sicily People of Emilian descent Italian resistance movement members Italian anti-fascists Italian Communist Party politicians 20th-century Italian politicians 20th-century Italian translators 20th-century Italian novelists 20th-century Italian male writers Italian newspaper editors Italian male journalists Italian magazine founders