Biography of Carlo Cassola

March 17, 1917
January 29, 1987
Carlo Cassola, born in Rome on March 17, 1917, died in Montecarlo by Lucca on January 29, 1987, was an Italian writer and essayist.

The life of Carlo Cassola

Last of five children, he was born in Rome in full World War I by the marriage of Maria Camilla Baird of Volterra and Grace Cassola, cavagna but resident in Tuscany for a very long time. As he writes in 1960 in a letter to Indro Montanelli, his paternal grandfather was a magistrate and convinced patriot who had participated in the ten days of Brescia, and later had fled to Switzerland to escape the many death sentences hanging over his head. His father was a Socialist activist and editor of "next" under the direction of Leonida Bissolati.

A sad childhood

The Captain cannot be defined as a happy childhood, probably because of his being the youngest of five brothers, all much older than him, and to hear, therefore, to be as an only child to his parents. In this particular situation also adds its natural character that led him to being a boy isolated, with little sense of initiative but has an active imagination that would take him, in the teens, to approach what would give him greater success in his life: literature. "All it took was a name to excite, to put in motion the imagination, resulting in often remove and deprezzargli all he knew of the real and tallied to practical reasons"-says Carlo Cassola, speaking of himself in his "diary sheets", thanks to which it is easy to see how the writer was a person who was more easily carried away by what felt rather than by what he saw.

Formal education

A little as often happens for all poets and writers, including formal education of Carlo Cassola is quite regular, albeit from great himself will define a real failure, led him, in 1969, writing: "School of crime, that's what the school today, not only here but everywhere. And the blame goes back to religious or secular culture. In this major drug dealer; in this authentic opium of the people". In 1927 began attending the Regio liceo-ginnasio Torquato Tasso, then enroll, in 1932, at the liceo classico Umberto I where absolutely fascinated by the works of Giovanni Pascoli, while the rest remains deeply disappointed. But in the same year, thanks to assiduous attendance of a few friends, and reading some important works such as "today, tomorrow and never" by Riccardo Bacchelli, "my friends" from Antonio Baldini and Leonida Repaci brothers "Cliff", the young Captain begins to nurture a strong interest in literature and writing.

His debut in literature

Its approach to literature, as a writer, takes place roughly at the beginning of World War II when, propelled by a strong interest, approaches the literary current of hermetism, whose great precursor, we know, was Salvatore Quasimodo. Of this particular current, Carlo Cassola loves the taste of simplicity, the cult of poetry as ever, and the constant use of prose that he, with regard to its narrative style, as exclusive attention to existential.

His first stories

His first stories, written between 1937 and 1940, are collected and published in 1942 in two books: "the suburbs" and "the view." And from these, says Salvatore Guglielmino, "Cardoso aims to capture in a story or in a gesture that is its appearance more authentic, albeit modest, everyday item that reveals the sense of existence, the tone of a feeling".

Graduation and other stories

In 1939, after his military service in Spoleto and Brixen, he graduated in law with a thesis on civil law, a subject that never belonged, then devoted himself to his literary activity. In fact, immediately after graduating, publishes three stories, "the visit", "soldier" and "the Hunter" in the magazine "literature" where, once the beds are reported to magazines "current" and "Frontispiece", with which the Roman writer begins to work assiduously. After the end of World War II, Cassola, influenced since 1946, public in character strength "Baba", a tale in four episodes which appears in the journal "the World", and begins to work as a member of their newsrooms, with some newspapers and magazines of the time such as: "the nation of the people," Tuscan Committee of liberation magazine, "morning paper" and "The Socialist Italy."

The crisis

From 1949 onwards, Carl begins to live a profound crisis, both human and literary, which is also reflected on his production. Indeed, in that year, dies, just 31 years old, wife to a fatal attack. From then on the essay writer calls into question his entire poetic existence on which, until then, had based all his work as a writer. This new way of seeing life and literature, was one of his most famous texts, "cutting of the forest", which meets many difficulties for the production, which was granted after the waste of Mondadori and Bompiani, from "tokens", a direct experimental necklace from Vittorini, giving Carl the opportunity to burn again. From this point on, the writer begins to live a very fruitful period of activity. Date from these years operas as "books of the time", "Fausto and Anna", "old Comrades".

The last years

After writing some very important works and working with the major journals of literary criticism, in 1984 published "people count more of the place" and gets sick at heart. Dies at 69 years old on January 29, 1987, seized with a sudden cardiovascular collapse, while located in Montecarlo by Lucca.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.