Stefano Pirandello (14 June 1895 - Rome, 5 February 1972) was an Italian playwright and writer, also known under the pen name Stefano Landi.

Life and career

Born in Rome, the son of the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

winner

Luigi is a fictional character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario, Nintendo's mas ...

, Pirandello enrolled in the Faculty of Letters at the

Sapienza University The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...

, but left his studies in 1915 to enlist as a volunteer in the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

.Costa, Simona (2015).
Pirandello, Stefano
. ''

Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani The ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' ( en, Biographical Dictionary of the Italians) is a biographical dictionary published by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1925 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biogra ...

'', Volume 84.

Treccani The ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' ( Italian for "Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters, and Arts"), best known as ''Treccani'' for its developer Giovanni Treccani or ''Enciclopedia Italiana'', is an Italian-language ...

. Almost immediately captured from the Austrian army, he remained imprisoned until the end of the war between

Mauthausen Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germa ...

and Planá. After the war, he started collaborating with various publications as a journalist and a short story author, using the pseudonym Stefano Landi, and also served as secretary, administrator, literary agent, collaborator and sometimes co-author of his father. In 1923 he made his debut as a dramatist with the one-act play ''I bambini'', followed from his best known drama, the autobiographical ''La casa a due piani'' ("The two-storey house"), first staged at the

Teatro Argentina The Teatro Argentina (directly translating to "Theatre Argentina") is an opera house and theatre located in Largo di Torre Argentina, a square in Rome, Italy. One of the oldest theatres in Rome, it was constructed in 1731 and inaugurated on 31 ...

Dario Niccodemi Dario Niccodemi ( Livorno, Italy, 27 January 1874 – Rome, Italy, 24 September 1934) was a novelist and a playwright who was born in Italy. Life and career He spent his youth in Buenos Aires; he met the French actress ''Rejane'' in 1900, becam ...

's theatre company. In 1933 Pirandello wrote the short story ''Giuoca, Pietro!'', later credited to his father and used as basis for the film '' Steel''. In 1935 he released his debut novel ''Il muro di casa'' ("The wall of the house"), which was awarded the

Viareggio Prize The Viareggio Prize ( it, Premio Viareggio, italic=no or ) is an Italian literary prize, first awarded in 1930. Named after the Tuscan city of Viareggio, it was conceived by three friends, , Carlo Salsa and Leonida Rèpaci, to rival the Milanese ...

. After the death of his father in 1936, Pirandello reconstructed and finalised his father's unfinished drama play ''I giganti della montagna'', which was staged the same year by

Renato Simoni Renato Simoni (Verona, 5 September 1875 – Milan, 5 July 1952) was an Italian journalist, playwright, writer and theatrical critic noted for his collaboration work with Giuseppe Adami for Giacomo Puccini's ''Turandot''. Simoni's career was enti ...

. In the following years Pirandello went on an intense activity as playwright, alternating dramas and comedies, in particular having critical success with the drama ''Un gradino più giù'' ("One step behind"), which dealt with a family facing the mental handicap of a child. After the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Pirandello slowed his activities, with the failure of the

Ardeatine massacre The Ardeatine massacre, or Fosse Ardeatine massacre ( it, Eccidio delle Fosse Ardeatine), was a mass killing of 335 civilians and political prisoners carried out in Rome on 24 March 1944 by German occupation troops during the Second World War ...

-inspired tragedy ''Sacrilegio massimo'' ("Maximum sacrilege"), staged in 1953 by

Giorgio Strehler Giorgio Strehler (; ; 14 August 1921 – 25 December 1997) was an actor, Italian opera and theatre director. Biography Strehler was born in Barcola, Trieste; His father, Bruno Strehler, was a native of Trieste with family roots in Vienna and di ...

at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, leaving him profoundly disappointed and deluded. In his later years he wrote a series of monologues for

Paola Borboni Paola Borboni (1 January 1900 – 9 April 1995) was an Italian stage and film actress whose career spanned nine decades of cinema. Early life Borboni was born on 1 January 1900 in Parma, Italy. Career Borboni made her stage debut in 1 ...

, authored some radio dramas, wrote some short stories and revisited some of his early works. Married to the musician Maria Olinda Labroca since 1922, Pirandello had three sons (Maria Antonietta, Andrea Luigi and Giorgio). He died on 5 February 1972, at the age of 76.

References

External links

Stefano_Pirandello
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Solmi, Sergio 1899 births 1981 deaths Writers from Rome Viareggio Prize winners 20th-century Italian male writers 20th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights

Stefano Stefano is the Italian form of the masculine given name Στέφανος (Stefanos, Stephen). The name is of Greek origin, Στέφανος, meaning a person who made a significant achievement and has been crowned. In Orthodox Christianity the a ...

Sapienza University of Rome alumni Italian military personnel of World War I