Tommaso Besozzi
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Tommaso Francesco Besozzi (20 January 1903 – 18 November 1964), also known as Tom, was an Italian journalist and writer. He is considered to be one of the most important post-war journalists of Italy and his writing style earned him the epithet "
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 f ...
of Europeo".


Early life

Born in
Vigevano Vigevano (; ) is a (municipality) in the province of Pavia, in the Italian region of Lombardy. A historic art town, it is also renowned for shoemaking and is one of the main centres of Lomellina, a rice-growing agricultural district. Vigevano ...
in
Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...
, northern
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, in a rather affluent family, he was one of four children; one sister and two brothers, who both were killed in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.Tommaso Francesco Besozzi: Vigevano 20 gennaio 1903 – 18 novembre 1964
Viglevanum Nr. 13, 2003
He studied at university, first mathematics in
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
and later at the Faculty of Arts in
Pavia Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was a major polit ...
.


Journalistic career

He started to work as a journalist for the ''
Corriere della Sera (; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...
'' in 1926 in
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 ...
. In 1937 he reported from
Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
after the Italian invasion and occupation. In 1947 he moved to the weekly magazine ''
L'Europeo was a prominent Italian weekly news magazine launched on 4 November 1945, by the founder-editors Gianni Mazzocchi and Arrigo Benedetti.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 f ...
of Europeo”.Besozzi. Vita agra di un cronista
Corriere della Sera, 12 May 1995
Rumour has it that when Hemingway was asked in the 1950s if an Italian Hemingway existed, he said: “You also have one who writes like me: Tommaso Besozzi."Cronache d'Africa di Tommaso Besozzi, l'Hemingway del nostro giornalismo
Corriere della Sera, 24 December 1999
In February 1947 he wrote a historical article on the
Istrian–Dalmatian exodus The Istrian–Dalmatian exodus (; ; ) was the post-World War II exodus and departure of local ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians) as well as ethnic Slovenes and Croats from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugosla ...
, when Italian citizens were leaving Pola, when the regions of
Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...
,
Dalmatia Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...
, and
Venezia Giulia 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.
, were handed over to
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
after the
Paris Peace Treaty The Paris Peace Treaties () were signed on 10 February 1947 following the end of World War II in 1945. The Paris Peace Conference lasted from 29 July until 15 October 1946. The victorious wartime Allied powers (principally the United Kingdom, ...
.Petacco,
A tragedy revealed
', pp. 109-10
In 1948 he published an article in ''L'Europeo'', showing the misery and hunger of the people of
Africo Africo (Central-Southern Calabrian, Calabrian: ; ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Reggio Calabria, in the Southern Italian region of Calabria located from Reggio Calabria. Africo consists of two main centers. The first, Africo Vecchio (Old A ...
, in the
Aspromonte The Aspromonte is a mountain massif in the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria (Calabria, southern Italy). In Italian aspro means "rough" whereas in Greek it means "white" (wikt:άσπρος, Άσπρος), therefore the name literally translat ...
mountains, in
Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
.Africo, emblema della disperazione
by Tommaso Besozzi, L’Europeo Nr. 12, March 1948
The article, entitled "Africo, symbol of disparity", and the series of documentary photographs by
Tino Petrelli Valentino Petrelli (August 6, 1922 – September 8, 2001), better known as Tino, was an Italian photographer, well known for his documentary photography. He covered Italy under fascist rule, the war and reconstruction, as well as the economic boo ...
produced an outrage from national public opinion which, at the time, was rediscovering the dramatic situation of the "
southern question The term southern question () indicates, in Italian historiography, the perception, which developed in the post-unification context, of the situation of persistent backwardness in the socioeconomic development of the regions of southern Italy c ...
".''Food and Fatness in Calabria'', by Vito Teti, i
Social Aspects of Obesity
edited by I. de Garine and Nancy J. Pollock, Routledge, 1995,
Africo 1948, fra la perduta gente
Biblioteca Pubblica Davoli, 10 February 2023
In July 1950, he wrote an article about the mysterious death of the Sicilian bandit
Salvatore Giuliano Salvatore Giuliano (; Sicilian: Turiddu or Sarvaturi Giulianu; 16 November 1922 – 5 July 1950) was an Italian brigand, who rose to prominence in the disorder that followed the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. In September of that year, Giu ...
, shot and killed in
Castelvetrano Castelvetrano () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Trapani, Sicily, southern Italy. The archeological site of Selinunte is located within the municipal territory. The municipality borders with Campobello di Mazara, Mazara del Vall ...
. According to the police, Giuliano died resisting arrest. However, Besozzi soon exposed the official version as fiction. The headline of the article read: "The only thing certain is that he is dead."Di sicuro c'è solo che è morto
by Tommaso Besozzi, L’Europeo, 12 July 1950
''Tommaso Besozzi una vita in prima pagina''
review for Ordine dei Giornalisti, Consiglio Regionale della Lombardia
The article established his name and is often mentioned as one of the examples of investigative journalism in Italy. In the 1950s he returned to Africa as a special correspondent for ''L'Europeo'' and '' Gente''. His articles were later published in the book ''Il sogno del settimo viaggio'' (The dream of the seventh journey).


Death and legacy

Lonesome, victim of a writer’s block, he committed suicide with a homemade bomb on 18 November 1964 in
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
. He is considered to be one of the most important post-war journalists of Italy.L' Europeo, storia d' Italia
Corriere della Sera, 2 December 2005


Bibliography

* Mannucci, Enrico (ed.) (1995). ''I giornali non sono scarpe. Tommaso Besozzi una vita da prima pagina''. Baldini Castoldi Dalai, . * Mannucci, Enrico (ed) (1999). ''Tommaso Besozzi. Il sogno del settimo viaggio''. Rome: Fazi, .


References

*Petacco, Arrigo (2005).
A tragedy revealed: the story of the Italian population of Istria, Dalmatia, and Venezia Giulia, 1943-1956
', University of Toronto Press,


External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Besozzi, Tommaso 1903 births 1964 deaths Italian male journalists 20th-century Italian journalists 1964 suicides 20th-century Italian male writers Suicides by explosive device Suicides in Italy