Fallaci, Oriana

(1929–2006)

   Born in Florence, Oriana Fallaci was one of the few journalists and contemporary political commentators to make the language leap and reach a genuinely international audience. She was briefly a partisan during World War II and, after training as a journalist in the 1950s, became a war correspondent, covering events in Latin America, Vietnam, and elsewhere. She was shot by the Mexican armed forces in 1968 when she was covering the student disturbances in that country. She was a regular writer for the Italian magazines Epocaand Europeoand also for prestigious American publications such as the New Yorker. Her books have been translated into many foreign languages and published all over the world. In the 1970s, especially, Fallaci won a reputation for interviewing the world’s leading politicians. Henry Kissinger, Indira Gandhi, Lech Walesa, Willy Brandt, and Yassir Arafat are just some of her interviewees. Some of her interviews themselves made history. Kissinger admitted that the Vietnam War had been a mistake in an interview with her; Portuguese communist leader Alvaro Cunhal expressed less than enthusiasm for democracy in an interview with her and greatly weakened his party’s position prior to the crucial 1975 elections. In recent years, Fallaci became controversial for her outspoken (and in the opinion of many) racist views on Arabs and Islam. Her book La Rabbia e l’orgoglio(The Rage and the Pride, 2001), written after 9/11, aroused widespread condemnation and several lawsuits for its offensive material. The book was loved by right-wing parties such as the Lega Nord/Northern League (LN) and was a huge best-seller in Italy. Fallaci died in Florence in September 2006.

   See also Press.