Cesare Pavese (1908-1950), Italian writer and poet
Pavese came from rural
Piedmont in northern
Italy, the setting for most of his writing. Starting his writing career under the
fascist regime, his left-wing views inevitably got him into trouble with the authorities and he spent some time in the late 1930s in
internal exile. In the immediate post-war period he moved away from his former neorealist style, although his novels had always been more about the condition of the individual than that of society. Although he achieved considerable recognition as a writer during his lifetime, his personal life seemed perpetually doomed to failure, and in August 1950, following an unsuccessful relationship with the actress Constance Dowling, he committed
suicide in a
Turin hotel room.
Sources:
- The biographical and bibliographical notes in a heavily thumbed copy of La luna e i falò
- Amazon.com and various other google-located web sites for available English edition titles
- Stuff I Remember From University