Corrado Alvaro

Corrado Alvaro ( born April 15, 1895 in San Luca, Reggio Calabria Province; † June 11, 1956 in Rome ) was an Italian writer and journalist. In his realistic prose -oriented, he denounced life the social and political burdens of the poor people, especially in his Calabrian home to. His novel quasi una vita was awarded the Premio Strega 1951.

Life and work

As the first of six children Corrado Alvaro was born in 1895 in the small village of San Luca, at the foot of the Calabrian Aspromonte massif or on its ionic sea side. His father Antonio was a primary school teacher, his mother Antonia Giampaolo came from a family of small owners. Even as a schoolboy he put a keen interest in local history on the day and published in 1912 the prospectus Polsi, nell'arte, nella leggenda e nella storia ( The Madonna of Polsi in art, legend and history).

In 1915 he took part in the First World War and was assigned to an infantry regiment in Florence. After his injury in the fighting around Gorizia and a long stay in military hospitals he came in September 1916 he traveled to Rome, where he was an employee of the newspaper Il Resto del Carlino. As editor of the newspaper, he soon moved to Bologna where he married on April 8, 1918 Laura Babini.

In 1919 he moved to the Corriere della Sera in Milan and completed his philology studies at the University of Milan from. For Giovanni Amendola newspaper Il Mondo, he worked as a correspondent in Paris in 1921 and published in 1922 his first novel L' uomo nel labirinto serialized in Spettatore. In 1925 he was one of the signatories of the initiated by Benedetto Croce manifesto of the anti-fascist intellectuals. He wrote for several newspapers and magazines, so esp. for the Turin La Stampa, in the first pages of his most important work, the short story collection Gente in Aspromonte appeared. Gente in Aspromonte (1930 published as volume ) is considered a landmark work for an independent southern Italian literature as well as early forerunner of Italian neorealism.

Other foreign assignments as a journalist led Alvaro 1928-1930 to Berlin in 1931 in Turkey and 1935 to Russia, where he wrote several articles about the October Revolution of 1917, inter alia, for Leo Longanesis magazine omnibus. At the same time he also supplied the fascist magazine Popolo di Roma contributions, without being a member of the Partito Nazionale Fascista.

In January 1941, he returned at the funeral of his father one last time to San Luca, while he was repeatedly visited his mother in Caraffa del Bianco, where his brother Massimo village priest was. After the fall of Mussolini, he took over July-September 1943 - in the 45 days of the Badoglio government - the management of the Popolo di Roma and fled during the German occupation under the pseudonym Guido Giorgi from Rome to Chieti.

Together with Libero Bigiaretti and Francesco Jovine he founded in 1945 the Writers' Union Sindacato Nazionale Scrittori whose secretary he was, until his death. In 1947 he took over for a short time the leadership of the Neapolitan magazine Risorgimento, but when people on the left, he gave this task because of political disagreements with the staff of the liberal market oriented sheet soon back on.

At the presentation of his novel quasi una vita Alvaro began in 1951 against strong competitors by: Carlo Levi, Alberto Moravia, Mario Soldati and Domenico Rea. As in Gente in Aspromonte he brought again the hopeless, unchanging poverty in his Calabrian home for expression, such as in the paradigmatic narrative Un fatto di cronaca (1955), in the form of a report to the absurd and voyeuristic drive to document a group of journalists portrays in a poor neighborhood.

Since 1954, Alvaro was suffering from a tumor which led to his death on June 11, 1956. He left behind some unfinished works, including the posthumously published by Arnaldo Frateili novels Belmoro, mast Rank Elina and Tutto è accaduto. His hand- written heritage is preserved today in his native village of San Luca by Fondazione Corrado Alvaro, specifically established for the care of his literary heritage. Corrado Alvaro is buried in the cemetery of Vallerano at Viterbo, where he had acquired in 1939 a large house in the country.

Works

Original editions

  • Polsi, nell'arte, nella leggenda e nella storia. Gerace: Serafino, 1912 (new edition of Reggio Calabria: Iiriti Editore, 2005)
  • Poetry grigioverdi. Rome: Lux, 1917
  • La siepe e l' orto. Florence: Vallecchi, 1920
  • L' uomo nel labirinto. Milan: Alpes, 1926
  • L' amata alla finestra. Turin: Buratti, 1929
  • Vent'anni. Milan: Treves, 1930
  • Gente in Aspromonte. Florence: Le Monnier, 1930; awarded the prize of the newspaper La Stampa (1931 )
  • L' uomo è forte. Milan: Bompiani, 1938; the Literature Prize of the Accademia d' Italia Award (1940 )
  • Incontri d' amore. Milan: Bompiani, 1940
  • L' eta breve. Milan: Bompiani, 1946; first novel in the cycle Memorie del mondo sommerso
  • Il nostro tempo e la speranza. Saggi di vita contemporanea. Milan: Bompiani, 1952
  • Un fatto di cronaca. Settantacinque racconti. Milan: Bompiani, 1955
  • Colore di Berlino. Viaggio in Germania (Eds.: Anne -Christine Faitrop - Porta). Reggio Calabria: Falzea, 2001
  • Il mare Milano 1934 (new edition Ilisso Edizioni, 2006)

German translations

  • Gente in Aspromonte and other stories. Heidelberg: Groos, 1946
  • Italian Travel Book. Ebenshausen in Munich: Langewiesche -Brandt, 1956
  • Memories of the lost world. Vol 1: Time of lying. Berlin: nation and the world, 1970
  • Memories of the lost world. Vol 2: The smile of women. Berlin: nation and the world, 1971
  • Memories of the lost world. Volume 3: Roman salons. Berlin: nation and the world, 1972
  • The shepherds of Aspromonte. Berlin: Henssel, 1985 ( 3rd edition )
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