Eurialo De Michelis (23 October 1904 – 17 December 1990) was an Italian writer, poet and literary critic born in

Salerno Salerno (, ; ; ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located ...

Mezzogiorno Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or culture of the historic ...

Biography

De Michelis was born in

, although his family was a northern one, originating in

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

and

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. While he was still young they moved back to the north, settling in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

in the Veneto, where his father, a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

minister, had been invited to take on his own parish. De Michelis launched his literary career with a volume of poetry published in 1927 and entitled ''Aver vent'anni'' (loosely, "Aged twenty") which was followed by his first narrative work, ''Adamo'' (1930), three years later. This marked him out as a proponent of the new neorealist literary movement. He moved from Vicenza to Rome in 1932. After producing two collections of short stories - ''Bugie'' (1931) and ''Distacco'' (1934) - he devoted himself principally to non-fiction, producing studies of

Grazia Deledda Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda (; or Gràtzia Deledda ; 27 September 1871 – 15 August 1936) was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity p ...

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Giovanni Verga Giovanni Carmelo Verga di Fontanabianca (; 2 September 1840 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian Literary realism, realist (''Verismo (literature), verista'') writer. His novels ''I Malavoglia'' (1881) and ''Mastro-don Gesualdo'' (1889) are widel ...

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent ...

Alberto Moravia Alberto Pincherle (; 28 November 1907 – 26 September 1990), known by his pseudonym Alberto Moravia ( , ), was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. Moravia i ...

Alessandro Manzoni Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni (, , ; 7 March 1785 – 22 May 1873) was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher. He is famous for the novel ''The Betrothed (Manzoni novel), The Betrothed'' (orig. ) (1827), generally ranked among ...

, Gabriele D'Annunzio and

Giuseppe Gioachino Belli Giuseppe Francesco Antonio Maria Gioachino Raimondo Belli (7 September 1791 – 21 December 1863) was an Italian poet, famous for his sonnets in Romanesco, the dialect of Rome. Biography Giuseppe Francesco Antonio Maria Gioachino Raimondo Bell ...

. Later he returned to another focus which was on poetry, with significant collections published in 1962 and in 1965 (''Poesie a ritroso'' and ''Viaggio in carrozza''). In 1933 he teamed up with

Mario Pannunzio Mario Pannunzio (5 March 1910 – 10 February 1968) was an Italian journalist and politician. As a journalist he was the director in charge of the daily newspaper Risorgimento Liberale (''Liberal reawakening'') in the 1940s and of the weekly p ...

and Antonio Delfini to create what became the liberal-leaning ''Oggi'' magazine, described originally as "a weekly journal of literature and the arts" (''Settimanale di lettere ed arti'').

Memberships and awards (selection)

De Michelis was a member of the

Accademia degli Arcadi The Accademia degli Arcadi or Accademia dell'Arcadia, "Academy of Arcadia" or "Academy of the Arcadians", is an Italian literary academy founded in Rome in 1690. The full Italian official name was Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi. History Found ...

. He received various awards, including the Fracchia Prize for narrative organised by the La Fiera Letteraria. He received the Manzoni Prize and the D'Annunzio Prize; and the Roncaglia Prize from the

Accademia dei Lincei The (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed"), anglicised as the Lincean Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. Founded in ...

in respect of his entire non-fiction output.

Legacy

Eurialo De Michelis built up a significant library which was sold to the

Biblioteca Classense The Biblioteca Classense is the public library of Ravenna, Italy. In 1803, with the Napoleonic suppression of monasteries and religious institutions, a library was created to harbor the confiscated books. They were housed in the library of the Cam ...

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

after he died. De Michelis maintained contact with many leading figures of twentieth century Italian literature: the collection offers important insights and comprises many volumes covering fiction, non-fiction and poetry. His personal papers are deposited at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia (, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; ) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest un ...

Manuscripts Centre, and in the Venetian Manuscripts Archive at the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Michelis, Euralio People from Salerno People from Vicenza 20th-century Italian non-fiction writers Italian literary critics 20th-century Italian poets Members of the Academy of Arcadians 1904 births 1990 deaths