Biography of Giorgio Caproni

Modern poetry

January 7, 1912
January 22, 1990
Born on 7 January 1912 in Livorno, Giorgio Caproni was undoubtedly one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. Of modest origins, Attilio's father is an accountant and his mother, Anna, a seamstress. George discovers early literature through books of his father, so much so that at the age of seven she finds in the paternal library an anthology of the Poets of origins (Sicilians, the Tuscans), remaining hopelessly fascinated and involved. During the same period he devoted himself to the study of the Divine Comedy, which is inspired by "the seed of the cry" and "the wall."
During the first world war he moved with his mother and his brother Pierfrancesco (older than him by two years) in the House of a relative, Italy baths, while the father is drafted.
Are hard years, both for economic reasons and for the atrocities of war leaving a deep groove in the sensitivity of the little George. Finally in 1922 ending the bitterness, first with the birth of his younger sister Marcella, then with what will be the most significant event in the life of Giorgio Caproni: the transfer to Genoa, he will define "my real city". After high school, he enrolled at the Music Institute "g. Verdi", where he studied violin. At eighteen give up permanently the ambition of becoming a musician and he enrolled at the Magistero di Torino, but soon abandoned his studies. Starts in those years writing the first lines of poetry: not satisfied with the result obtained rips the sheets by throwing away everything. It is the time of the meetings with the new poets of the era: Montale, Ungaretti, barbarian.
Was struck from the pages of "cuttlefish bones", to the point of stating: "... will be forever a part of my being." In 1931 decides to send some of his poems to the Genoese magazine "circle", but the Manager of the headboard, Adriano Large, rejects inviting him to patience, as if to say that poetry was not suitable for him. Two years later, in 1933, publishes his first poems, "Eventide" and "first light" on two literary journals and, in Sanremo, where is for military service, grow some literary friendships: Giorgio Bassani, Fidia Gambetti and Giovanni Battista Vicari. Also begins to collaborate with magazines and newspapers publishing reviews and literary criticism. In 1935 he began teaching at elementary schools, first at Rovegno then in Arenzano. The death of fiancee Olga Franzoni in 1936 gives rise to small poetic collection "as an allegory", published in Genoa from Emiliano degli Orfini.
The tragic death of the girl, caused by septicemia, causes a deep sadness in his works of this period as testified by many poets, including include the "Sonnets of the anniversary" and "morning frost". In 1938, after the publication of "Dance in Fontanigorda" for the Publisher Emiliano degli Orfini, marries Lina Rettagliata; in the same year he moved to Rome, serving there only four months. The following year he drafted and in May 1939 was born his eldest daughter, Silvana. At the outbreak of war is first posted on the face of the Maritime Alps then in Veneto. The 1943 is very important for Giorgio Caproni because he sees one of his works published by a curator of national importance. "Chronicle" sees the prints at Vallecchi in Florence, at the time editor of the most famous.
Even the facts of war have much relevance for the life of the poet who spends, from 8 September to liberation, nineteen months in Val Trebbia partisan neighborhood. In October 1945 he returned to Rome where he remained until 1973 by carrying out the activity of an elementary school teacher. In the capital knows various writers including Cassola, Forts and Pratolini, and establishes relations with other cultural figures (one for all: Pasolini). The production of this period is based primarily on prose and publishing articles about various literary and philosophical topics. During those years, joined the Socialist Party and in 1948 participates in Warsaw on the first World Congress of intellectuals for peace ".
In 1949 back to Livorno in search of the tomb of grandparents and rediscovers his love for his hometown: "I'm going down to Livorno and now I'm feeling healthy. From that moment I love my city, I was saying ...". Literary activities of Caproni become frantic. In 1951 he devoted himself to the translation of "time regained" by Marcel Proust, followed by other versions of many classics from the French Alps. Meanwhile, his poetry is emerging more: "Stanze della funicolare" won the Viareggio Prize in 1952 and after seven years, in 1959, publishes "the passage of Aeneas". Also in that year he won the Viareggio Prize again with "the seed of the cry". From 1965 to 1975 published "dismissal of ceremonious traveler and other prosopopee", the "third book and other things" and "the wall."
It is of the 1976 publication of his first collection, "Poems"; in 1978 he released a book of poems entitled "French Grass". From 1980 to 1985 his poetry collections are published by various publishers. In 1985 the Genoa City awarded him the honorary citizenship. In 1986 is published "the Earl of Kevenhuller". "His poetry, which mixes popular speech and language and consists of a syntax that is torn and anxious, in a music that is both dissonant and exquisite, expresses an attachment suffered the everyday reality and exalts its array of sentences in an evocative epic housewife '. The accents of bitter solitude of the latest collections arrive at some sort of religiosity without faith "(encyclopedia of literature, Garzanti). The great, unforgettable poet Giorgio Caproni went off the 22 January 1990 in his home in Rome. The following year was published posthumously the poetic collection "Res amissa".
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.