Luciano Bianciardi

Luciano Bianciardi was born in Grosseto (Italy) on December 22nd, 1922. In 1940 he enrolled at the University of Pisa, but from 1943 to 1945 his studies were interrupted by active service in World War II, after which he finally obtained a degree in Philosophy. After going back to his home town and getting married, he began working as library director, teacher, journalist and writer. In 1954 he moved to Milan and took on a job for the Feltrinelli Publishing House, and also started writing novels. His first novel, "Il Lavoro Culturale", was published in 1957. In the same year he lost his job at Feltrinelli and starts working as an English-Italian translator. Thanks to his work, all the major books in Anglo American contemporary literature were published in Italy for the first time (Henry Miller, William Faulkner, Norman Mailer and Saul Bellow are some of the authors whose works he translated). In 1962 Bianciardi published his most important and popular book, "La Vita Agra", which obtained immediate success and great critical acclaim, and was turned into a film by Carlo Lizzani, starring Ugo Tognazzi. He kept writing books as well as articles and editorials for several newspapers and magazines until his death in 1971.