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(Novecento)(1926–9).Literary journal founded in Rome by Curzio Malaparte and Massimo Bontempelli, though Malaparte quickly lost interest. It initially appeared as a quarterly in French (it had an ...
Accademia d'Italia, Reale
Founded in 1926, the Accademia d'Italia (as it was usually termed) was one of the principal initiatives taken by Fascism in the field of culture. Located in Rome, its purpose ...
Action Française
A French political movement, founded in 1898 at the height of the Dreyfus affair. In 1926 it was condemned by Pius XI on the grounds of extreme nationalism and a cynical misappropriation of Catholic ...
Ada Negri
(1870–1945).Poet, novelist, and one of the first significant working-class voices in Italian literature. Brought up in poverty in Milan by a widowed mother, as she describes in her autobiographical ...
Adriano Tilgher
(1887–1941).Philosopher, moralist, and literary critic, originally from Naples. Influenced by contemporary vitalism and relativism, he proposed an influential aesthetics at odds with both Croce and ...
Afredo Oriani
(1852–1909).Novelist and essayist. Born in Faenza, he was educated in Bologna, where after further studies in Rome and Naples he worked briefly in the legal profession before withdrawing to ...
Albert Speer
(1905–81)German Nazi leader. He was the official architect for the Nazi Party, designing the grandiose stadium at Nuremberg (1934). An efficient organizer, he became (1942) Minister for Armaments and ...
Alberto Carocci
(1904–72).Novelist and poet, best known as a founder and editor of literary journals, particularly in 1930s Florence. He was principally responsible for Solaria (1926–35). On its closure by the ...
Alberto Moravia
1907–1990)Italian writer, whose novels and short stories display his narrative skill and psychological insight.Moravia was born of Jewish stock in Rome, the setting for most of his stories. He began ...
Aldo Capasso
(1909–97).Poet and critic from Venice who lived much of his life in Liguria. He founded the movement Realismo lirico, which enjoyed the support of Borgese and Cardarelli, and edited ...
Alessandro Blasetti
(1900–87).Italy's foremost film director in the 1930s, very active after World War II, but known mostly for his historical films, such as 1860 (1933) on Garibaldi's first expedition. His ...
Alfonso Gatto
(1909–1976), renowned Italian poet who was also an editor, journalist, and cultural broadcaster. Gatto cofounded the influential literary journal Campo di Marte, was jailed due to his anti-Fascist ...
Alfredo Baccelli
(1863–1955).Poet, novelist and critic, who published his first book of verse, Germina (1883), as a student in Rome. He became a parliamentary deputy and, after the March on Rome ...
Alfredo Panzini
(1863–1939), Italian writer and literary critic.Panzini's conservative idea of society, as it transpires from La Lanterna di Diogene (The Lantern of Diogenes, 1907) and Il padrone sono me (I ...
Amelia Rosselli
(1930–96).Perhaps the most important Italian woman poet of the 20th c. She was the daughter of an English mother and Carlo Rosselli, the prominent anti-Fascist assassinated near Paris on ...
American Influences
It was only in the second half of the 19th c. that the study and appreciation of American literature acquired some momentum in Italy, although the limited knowledge of English ...
Aneurin Bevan
(b. 15 Nov. 1897, d. 6 July 1960).British politician Born in Tredegar, Monmouthshire, he started work in a coalmine at the age of 13. He was active in the South Wales Miners' Federation, and was ...
Angelo Fortunato Formiggini
(1878–1938).Publisher. From an old Jewish family in Modena, he was active at the turn of the century in Socialist and positivist circles. He remained committed to publishing as a ...
Antonio Beltramelli
(1879–1930).Writer and journalist. His first novel, Gli uomini rossi (1904), is a Romeo and Juliet tale of conflict in his native Romagna between Catholics and republicans (rossi); in the ...
António de Oliveira Salazar
(b. 8 Apr. 1889, d. 27 July 1970).Prime Minister of Portugal 1932–68Early careerBorn in Vimieiro (Beira Alta), he studied at a Roman Catholic school to prepare for the priesthood, but then decided to ...
