Quasimodo, Salvatore

(1901–1968)

   Born in one of Italy’s southernmost cities, Ragusa (Sicily), Quasimodo was brought up in a railwayman’s family and was given a technical education. He attended the University of Rome (La Sapienza) in 1921, initially to study engineering, but soon gave up his studies, and eventually found work as a clerk. In 1930, his first collection of poems, Acque e terre (Water and Earth), appeared after he was introduced into literary circles by his brother-in-law, Elio Vittorini. Two further collections were published in the 1930s, and during the war he published two great collections of lyrics translated from ancient Greek. In 1941, he was appointed professor of Italian literature in Milan.

   Quasimodo’s prewar poetry had taken no particular social position, but the tragic experience of World War II convinced him that he needed to take a stand on social issues. His overall body of work (which included translations of modern classics such as e.e. cummings, Ezra Pound, and Pablo Neruda) was recognized in 1959 by the award of the Nobel Prize. Upon his death in 1968 in Naples, Quasimodo enjoyed an international reputation as a poet.