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Eugenio Montale
Eugenio Montale (Italian: [euˈdʒɛːnjo monˈtaːle]; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator. In 1975, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions."
Montale was born in Genoa, the son of Giuseppina Ricci and Domenico Montale, a businessman who ran a chemical products company. Montale was the youngest of six children, including five brothers and a sister.
Montale attended elementary school in Genoa. The Montale family spent their summers at their villa in Monterosso al Mare, and the landscapes of the Ligurian region would go on to inspire his poetry. In 1911, he was enrolled at a technical college and graduated with a diploma in accountancy in 1915. In the same year, he began taking music lessons with baritone Ernesto Sivori. However, his time as an infantryman in World War I and the death of Sivori in 1923 caused him to abandon his career in music and turn to poetry instead.
Montale was largely self-taught.[citation needed] Growing up, his imagination was caught by several writers, including Dante Alighieri, and by the study of foreign languages (especially English).
Montale wrote more than ten anthologies of short lyrics, a journal of poetry translation, plus several books of prose translations, two books of literary criticism, and one of fantasy prose.[citation needed] Alongside his imaginative work he was a constant contributor to Italy's most important newspaper, the Corriere della Sera, for which he wrote a huge number of articles on literature, music, and art.[citation needed] He also wrote a foreword to Dante's "The Divine Comedy", in which he mentions the credibility of Dante, and his insight and unbiased imagination.[citation needed] In 1925 he was a signatory to the Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals. Montale's own politics inclined toward the liberalism of Piero Gobetti and Benedetto Croce. He contributed to Gobetti's literary magazine Il Baretti.
Montale's work, especially his first poetry collection Ossi di seppia ("Cuttlefish Bones"), which appeared in 1925, shows him as an antifascist who felt detached from contemporary life and found solace and refuge in the solitude of nature.[citation needed]
Montale moved to Florence in 1927 to work as an editor for the publisher Bemporad. Florence was the cradle of Italian poetry of that age, with works like the Canti orfici by Dino Campana (1914) and the first lyrics by Ungaretti for the review Lacerba. Other poets like Umberto Saba and Vincenzo Cardarelli had been highly praised. In 1929 Montale was asked to be chairman of the Gabinetto Vieusseux Library, a post from which he was expelled in 1938 by the fascist government. By this time Montale's poetry was a reaction against the literary style of the fascist regime. He collaborated with the magazine Solaria, and (starting in 1927) frequented the literary café Le Giubbe Rosse ("Red Jackets") on the Piazza Vittoria (now Piazza della Repubblica). Visiting the café often several times a day, he became a central figure among a group of writers there, including Carlo Emilio Gadda, Arturo Loria and Elio Vittorini (all founders of the magazine). He wrote for almost all the important literary magazines of the time.[citation needed]
Though hindered by financial problems and the literary and social conformism imposed by the authorities, in Florence, Montale published his finest anthology, Le occasioni ("Occasions", 1939). From 1933 to 1938 he had a love relationship with Irma Brandeis, a Jewish-American scholar of Dante who occasionally visited Italy for short periods. After falling in love with Brandeis, Montale represented her as a mediatrix figure like Dante's Beatrice. Le occasioni contains numerous allusions to Brandeis, here called Clizia (a senhal). Franco Fortini judged Montale's Ossi di seppia and Le occasioni the high-water mark of 20th century Italian poetry.[citation needed]
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Eugenio Montale
Eugenio Montale (Italian: [euˈdʒɛːnjo monˈtaːle]; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator. In 1975, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions."
Montale was born in Genoa, the son of Giuseppina Ricci and Domenico Montale, a businessman who ran a chemical products company. Montale was the youngest of six children, including five brothers and a sister.
Montale attended elementary school in Genoa. The Montale family spent their summers at their villa in Monterosso al Mare, and the landscapes of the Ligurian region would go on to inspire his poetry. In 1911, he was enrolled at a technical college and graduated with a diploma in accountancy in 1915. In the same year, he began taking music lessons with baritone Ernesto Sivori. However, his time as an infantryman in World War I and the death of Sivori in 1923 caused him to abandon his career in music and turn to poetry instead.
Montale was largely self-taught.[citation needed] Growing up, his imagination was caught by several writers, including Dante Alighieri, and by the study of foreign languages (especially English).
Montale wrote more than ten anthologies of short lyrics, a journal of poetry translation, plus several books of prose translations, two books of literary criticism, and one of fantasy prose.[citation needed] Alongside his imaginative work he was a constant contributor to Italy's most important newspaper, the Corriere della Sera, for which he wrote a huge number of articles on literature, music, and art.[citation needed] He also wrote a foreword to Dante's "The Divine Comedy", in which he mentions the credibility of Dante, and his insight and unbiased imagination.[citation needed] In 1925 he was a signatory to the Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals. Montale's own politics inclined toward the liberalism of Piero Gobetti and Benedetto Croce. He contributed to Gobetti's literary magazine Il Baretti.
Montale's work, especially his first poetry collection Ossi di seppia ("Cuttlefish Bones"), which appeared in 1925, shows him as an antifascist who felt detached from contemporary life and found solace and refuge in the solitude of nature.[citation needed]
Montale moved to Florence in 1927 to work as an editor for the publisher Bemporad. Florence was the cradle of Italian poetry of that age, with works like the Canti orfici by Dino Campana (1914) and the first lyrics by Ungaretti for the review Lacerba. Other poets like Umberto Saba and Vincenzo Cardarelli had been highly praised. In 1929 Montale was asked to be chairman of the Gabinetto Vieusseux Library, a post from which he was expelled in 1938 by the fascist government. By this time Montale's poetry was a reaction against the literary style of the fascist regime. He collaborated with the magazine Solaria, and (starting in 1927) frequented the literary café Le Giubbe Rosse ("Red Jackets") on the Piazza Vittoria (now Piazza della Repubblica). Visiting the café often several times a day, he became a central figure among a group of writers there, including Carlo Emilio Gadda, Arturo Loria and Elio Vittorini (all founders of the magazine). He wrote for almost all the important literary magazines of the time.[citation needed]
Though hindered by financial problems and the literary and social conformism imposed by the authorities, in Florence, Montale published his finest anthology, Le occasioni ("Occasions", 1939). From 1933 to 1938 he had a love relationship with Irma Brandeis, a Jewish-American scholar of Dante who occasionally visited Italy for short periods. After falling in love with Brandeis, Montale represented her as a mediatrix figure like Dante's Beatrice. Le occasioni contains numerous allusions to Brandeis, here called Clizia (a senhal). Franco Fortini judged Montale's Ossi di seppia and Le occasioni the high-water mark of 20th century Italian poetry.[citation needed]
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