Massimo Bontempelli


Massimo Bontempelli was an Italian poet, playwright, novelist and composer. He was influential in developing and promoting the literary style known as magical realism.

Life

Bontempelli graduated from the University of Turin in 1903. He taught elementary school for seven years, doing his writing on the side, but abandoned teaching for journalism when he could not secure a position at a secondary school. He served as a war correspondent during World War I. After the war, he settled in Milan and became interested in the literary styles of futurism and magical realism. In 1926, he, along with Curzio Malaparte, founded the journal "900". James Joyce, Max Jacob, and Rainer Maria Rilke sat on the editorial committee and Virginia Woolf and Blaise Cendrars were among the contributors.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Bontempelli was close to the fascism. He served as a secretary of the fascist writers' union and spent time abroad lecturing on Italian culture. However, in 1938 he refused to accept a university post formerly held by a Jewish professor and was kicked out of the Fascist party, drifting towards Communism. After World War II, Bontempelli won a Senate race on the Popular Democratic Front ticket but the results were voided when his fascist ties were discovered. In 1953, Bontempelli's "L'amante Fedele" won the Strega Prize, Italy's most prestigious literary award. After years of declining health, Bontempelli died in Rome in 1960.

Works

— The Living Age, 1 October 1926, pp. 68–71.
— The Living Age, 1 July 1927, pp. 44–47.
— The Living Age, 15 September 1927, pp. 549–551.
— The Living Age, 15 April 1928, pp. 720–722.
— The Living Age, 15 March 1930, pp. 115–120.
— Letters of Introduction Translated by W.L. Dale. The Cornhill Magazine, No. 1030, Winter 1961/62 pages 268-271.
— Dea by Dea. Translated by Anthony Oldcorn in Twentieth-Century Italian Drama: An Anthology, the First Fifty Years, ed. Jane House and Antonio Attisani.
—Separations: Two Novels of Mothers and Children. Translated by Estelle Gilson. McPherson & Co, 2000.
— The Divine Miss D and Genuine Minnie in The Italian Theater of the Grotesque. A New Theater for the Twentieth Century: An Anthology, ed. and trans. Jack D. Street and Rod Umlas.
—The Chess Set in the Mirror. Translated by Estelle Gilson. Illustrated by Sergio Tofano. Paul Dry Books, 2006.
—The Faithful Lover. Translated by Estelle Gilson with an introduction by Luigi Fontanella. Host Publications, 2007,
—On A Locomotive & Other Runaway Tales. Translated by Gilbert Alter-Gilbert. Xenos Book, 2013.
—. Translation and introduction by Patricia Gaborik. Italica Press, 2013. Also includes Stormcloud and Cinderella.