Eugenio Montale

Eugenio Montale (October 12, 1896, Genoa – September 12, 1981, Milan) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and traslator, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975. Photograph of Eugenio Montale File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Photograph of Eugenio Montale File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years). ... 1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Location within Italy Flag of Genoa Christopher Columbus monument in Piazza Aquaverde Genoa (Italian Genova, Genoese Zena, French Gênes, German Genua, Spanish Genova) is a city and a seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. ... September 12 is the 255th day of the year (256th in leap years). ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Milan (Italian: Milano; Milanese dialect: Milán) is the main city in northern Italy, and is located in the plains of Lombardy, the most populated and developed region in Italy. ... Poets are authors of poems, or of other forms of poetry such as dramatic verse. ... The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded annually to an author from any country who has produced the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency. The work in this case generally refers to an authors work as a whole, not to any individual work, though individual works are sometimes... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ...

Life

Early years

Montale was born in Genoa. His family was one of chemical products traders (his father fournished Italo Svevo's firm). A poet's nephew, Bianca Montale, in his Cronaca Famigliare ("Family chronicle") of 1986 portrays the common family characters as follows: Location within Italy Flag of Genoa Christopher Columbus monument in Piazza Aquaverde Genoa (Italian Genova, Genoese Zena, French Gênes, German Genua, Spanish Genova) is a city and a seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. ... Ettore Schmitz (December 19, 1861 - September 13, 1928), better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo, was an Italian businessman and author of novels, plays, and short stories. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Anxiety, nervous fragility, shyness, concision in speaking, a tendence to see as worst as possible each event, a certain sense of humour.

Eugenio was the youngest of six sons. He recalled: "We were a large family. My brothers went to the scagno ["office" in Genoese"]. My only sister had a university education, but I had not such a possibility. In many families existed the silent arrangement that the youngest was dispensed from the task to keep high the family's name". In 1915 Montale diplomated as accountant, but was left free to follow his literary passion, frequenting the city's libraries and attending his sister Marianna's private philosophy lesson. He also studied opera singing with the baritone Ernesto Sivori, but this had only superficial effect in his future inspiration. 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... In music, a baritone (from Greek βαρυτονος deeply, heavily sounding) is a male voice of intermediate pitch, between bass and tenor. ...

Montale was therefore a self-taught man, free of any conditioning from higher authorities and limited only by his very will and his person itself. His imaginery was forged by several reading, including Dante Alighieri, and by studies of foreign languages, together with the landscapes of the Levante ("Eastern") Liguria, where he spent holidays with his family. Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. ...

During World War I, as a member of the Military Academy of Parma, Montale asked to be sent to the front. After a brief war experience as infantry officer in Vallarsa and Val Pusteria, in 1920 he came back home. Clockwise from top: Trenches in frontline, a British Mark I Tank crossing a trench, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the battle of the Dardanelles, a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks and a Sopwith Camel biplane. ... Parma is a medieval city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, with splendid architecture and a fine countryside around it. ... 1920 (MCMXX) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ...

The years of Montale's youth can described as "rugged and essential", with the words he used for his land. In his vision of the world, the private feelings and a deep observation of the few things sourrounding him were prevalent. This "little world" of Mediterranean nature and family's women is however supported by an unstoppable series of reading, the most gratifying for Montale, being motivated only by his pleasure and desire of knowledge.

Poetical works

Montale wrote a relatively small number of works. Four anthologies of short lyrics, a quaderno of poetry translation, plus several books of prose translations, two literary criticism books and one of fantasy proses. To these he accompanied an uninterrupted collaboration with the main italian newspaper, the Corriere della Sera. Corriere della Sera is the leading Italian daily newspaper printed in Milan. ...

The resulting absurdity of World War I (nothing was accomplished; and as General Foch said, the Treaty of Versailles, it was not the end, but only a temporary cease fire) took its toll in various parts of the world of the arts and it manifested itself in various ways; eg, Dadaism, de Stijl. In Italy, among the poets, it manifested itself in the form of the Hermetical Society; refer to Hermetism which was probably the inspiration for the society's name. The output of the poetry group was to create poems of total illogic; thus mirroring the absurdity of the "War to End all Wars". The rise of fascist regime influenced deeply, though at incounscious level, his first poetry collection Ossi di seppia ("Cuttlefish Bones"), which appeared in 1925. The strong presence of Mediterranean landscape of Montale's native Liguria was a strong presence in his first poems: the geographical limits of Montale's inspiration were therefore the outer face of a sort of "personal reclusion" in face of the depressing events around him. The social emargination of his social class, liberal and acculturated, sharpened his sensibility towards the nature's phenomena: the personal solitude generated a talk with the little and insignificant things of Ligurian nature, or with the far and evocative of its horizon, the sea. According to Montale the nature is "rough, scanty, dazzling". The sea is "fermenting", provided of that hypnotic call which only the Mediterranean in certain haours can exert. In a life which appeared one of defeat since the very beginning, the nature seemed to give Montale a deeper dignity, the same that reader experminets reading his poems. Clockwise from top: Trenches in frontline, a British Mark I Tank crossing a trench, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the battle of the Dardanelles, a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks and a Sopwith Camel biplane. ... Ferdinand Foch A monument to Ferdinand Foch in Paris. ... The areas marked in yellow were removed from the control of Germany, or demiliterised (The Rhineland). ... Cover of the first edition of the publication, Dada. ... Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue 1921. ... Hermetism refers to a Greco-Egyptian pagan mystical sect, based on the Hermetic Corpus, also known as the Hermetica, a group of 18 tracts composed in Hellenic Alexandria in the first century C.E. To be distinguished from its Renaissance and modern offshots, generally known as Hermeticism. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. ...

The Anticonformism of the new poetry

Montale moved to Florence in 1927 to work as editor for the publisher Bemporad. Florence was the cradle of the 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 higly praised by the Florentine publishers. In 1929 Montale was asked as chairman of the Gabinetto Vissieux Library, from which he was expelled in 1938 by the Fascism. In the meantime he collaborated to the magazine Solaria, and frequented the literary cafe Giubbe Rosse ("Red Jackets"), where he got acquainted with Elio Vittorini and Carlo Emilio Gadda. He also wrote for almost all the literary magazine of that age of renovated research for poetry. Founded 59 BC as Florentia Region Tuscany Mayor Leonardo Domenici (Democratici di Sinistra) Area  - City Proper  102 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 356,000 almost 500,000 3,453/km² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Latitude Longitude 43°47 N 11°15 E www. ... Dino Campana was born 20 August 1885 in Marradi, Italy near Faenza. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970) was an Italian poet. ... Umberto Saba (March 9, 1883 - August 26, 1957) was the pseudonym of Italian poet and novelist, Umberto Poli. ... -1... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Elio Vittorini (July 23, 1908 - February 12, 1966) was an Italian writer and novelist. ... Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893-1973) is an Italian writer of the 20th century. ...

Though hindered by economical problems and by the conformism imposed by the authorities, Montale published in Florence his finest anthology, Occasioni ("Occasions", (1939). From 1933 to 1938 he was acquainted with Irma Brandeis, a Jewish-American scholar of Dante who occasionally visited Italy for short visits before returning to the United States. After falling in love with Brandeis, Montale's recollection of her ceased to be literal and she became a mediatrix figure like Dante's Beatrice. Le occasioni contains numerous allusions to Brandeis, here called Clizia. Franco Fortini judged Montale's Ossi di Seppia and Occasioni the highest points of the whole 20th century's Italian poetry. See also: 1938 in literature, other events of 1939, 1940 in literature, list of years in literature. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Irma Brandeis Irma Brandeis (1905-1990) was a Jewish-American scholar of Dante Alighieri. ... Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... Although the details surrounding the life of Beatrice Portinari (1266-1290) are subject to much dispute, there is little doubt she was a major influence in Dante Alighieris life, influencing particularly his works of La Vita Nuova and La Divina Commedia. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Disarmony with the world

Since 1948 to his death Montale lived in Milan. As ha collaborator for the Corriere della Sera he was music editor and reportages from abroad, including Palestine where he went as reporter to follow Pope Paulus VI's voyage there. His works as a journalist are collected in Fuori di casa ("Out of Home", 1969). 1948 (MCMXLVIII) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Pope Paul VI (Latin: ), born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (September 26, 1897 – August 6, 1978), reigned as Pope and as sovereign of Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. ... See also: 1968 in literature, other events of 1969, 1970 in literature, list of years in literature. ...

La bufera e altro ("The Storm and Other Things") was published in 1956 and marks the end of Montale's most acclaimed poetry. Here his figure Clizia is joined by La Volpe ("the Fox"), based on the young poetess Maria Luisa Spaziani with whom Montale had an affair during the 1950s. See also: 1955 in literature, other events of 1956, 1957 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Maria Luisa Spaziani (born 1924) is an Italian poetess. ... // Events and trends This map shows two essential global spheres during the Cold War in 1959. ...

His later works are Xenia (1966), Satura (1971) and Diario del '71 e del '72 (1973). Montale's later poetry is wry and ironic, musing on the critical reaction to his earlier works and on the constantly changing world around him. Satura contains a poignant elegy to his wife Drusilla Tanzi. Montale's fame at that point had extended to the whole world. He had received honorary degrees by the Universities of Milan (1961), Cambridge (1967), Rome (1974), and had been named at life in the Italian Senate. In 1975 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. See also: 1965 in literature, other events of 1966, 1967 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1970 in literature, other events of 1971, 1972 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1972 in literature, other events of 1973, 1974 in literature, list of years in literature. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... REDIRECT [1] ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... University of Rome La Sapienza (Università della Sapienza) is the biggest european university and the most ancient university of Rome, Italy. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded annually to an author from any country who has produced the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency. The work in this case generally refers to an authors work as a whole, not to any individual work, though individual works are sometimes...

In 1996 a work appeared called Posthumous Diary (Diario postumo) that purported to be a literary time-bomb constructed by Montale before his death with the help of the young poet Annalisa Cima. Critical reaction at first varied, with some believing that Cima had forged the collection outright, though now the work is generally considered authentic. 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Posthumous Diary (Diario postumo) is a series of poems attributed to the Italian poet Eugenio Montale which first appeared in full in 1996. ... Annalisa Cima (born 20 January 1941) is an Italian poet, who helped publish Eugenio Montales Posthumous Diary. ...

Works

• Ossi di Seppia (1925)
• La casa dei doganieri e altre poesie (1932)
• Le Occasioni (1939)
• Finisterre (1943)
• La Fiera letteraria (Poetry criticism, 1948)
• La bufera e altro (1956)
• La farfalla di Dinard (Journalism, 1956)
• Satura (1962)
• Accordi e pastelli (1962)
• Il colpevole (1966)
• Xenia (1966)
• Fuori di casa (1969)
• Diario del '71 e del '72 (1973)
• Posthumous Diary (1996)

See also: 1924 in literature, other events of 1925, 1926 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1931 in literature, other events of 1932, 1933 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1938 in literature, other events of 1939, 1940 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1942 in literature, other events of 1943, 1944 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1947 in literature, other events of 1948, 1949 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1955 in literature, other events of 1956, 1957 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1955 in literature, other events of 1956, 1957 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1961 in literature, other events of 1962, 1963 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1961 in literature, other events of 1962, 1963 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1965 in literature, other events of 1966, 1967 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1965 in literature, other events of 1966, 1967 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1968 in literature, other events of 1969, 1970 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1972 in literature, other events of 1973, 1974 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1995 in literature, other events of 1996, 1997 in literature, list of years in literature. ...

External links

• Eugenio Montale e la sua poesia (in Italian)
• Montale at the Nobel E-Museum
• his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions.