Luigi Pirandello was born on 28th June 1867 into an upper-class family in Agrigento, in Sicily.
In 1880, the family moved to Palermo and there he completed high school and thence to the University of Palermo, at that time the centre of what became the Fasci Siciliani movement. Although not an active member he had close friendships with many of its leading ideologists. Pirandello then completed his university studies in Rome and Bonn, receiving his Doctorate in March, 1891.
His time in Rome had provided him with the opportunity to visit its many theatres. "Oh the dramatic theatre! I will conquer it. I cannot enter into one without experiencing a strange sensation, an excitement of the blood through all my veins..."
1894 brought marriage, at his father's suggestion, to a shy, withdrawn girl: Mara Antonietta Portulano. The marriage encouraged his studies and writings and, the following year, the first part of the ‘Dialoghi tra Il Gran Me e Il Piccolo Me’ was published.
In 1903 the flooding of the sulphur mines in which his father had invested the family capital and Antonietta's dowry, brought financial catastrophe. She, on hearing the news, was mentally broken. Pirandello would now work a full day and then watch over his troubled wife at night. Somehow he found time to write ‘The Late Mattia Pascal’. It was an immediate and resounding success.
In 1909, Pirandello began his collaboration with the prestigious Corriere della Sera. Whilst his fame as a writer was increasing his private life was poisoned by the suspicion and jealousy of Antonietta who now turned physically violent. His plays were now being regularly performed but, within a decade, Antonietta had to be placed into an asylum from which she never left.
In 1921, in Rome his play, ‘Six Characters in Search of an Author’ debuted. It was a failure. However, when presented in Milan it was a great success, as it also was in London and New York.
In 1925, Pirandello, with Mussolini’s help, assumed the artistic direction and ownership of the Teatro d'Arte di Roma. He now described himself both as ‘a Fascist because I am Italian’ and ‘I'm apolitical, I'm only a man in the world...’ However his later conflicts with fascist leaders meant he fell under close surveillance by the OVRA, the secret police.
In 1934 he won the Nobel Prize but asked that the medal be melted down for Italy’s occupation of Abyssinia Campaign to which he had given his support.
Pirandello's canon stretches across novels, short stories, poetry, essays and some 40 plays. His tragic farces are often cited as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd.
Luigi Pirandello died on the 10th December 1936 at his home at Via Bosio, Rome, Italy. He was 69.
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