Dario Bellezza's literary career has included both narrative and poetry. He has also been a translator and a controversial figure both for the subject matter treated in his writing and for his public views. He continues to collaborate on the journals Paragone,Nuovi Argomenti,Bimestre,Carte Segrete, and Paese Sera and to contribute to other periodicals and newspapers. His first poems appeared in Nuovi Argomenti, although his first book published was the novel L'innocenza (Innocence, 1970), which established his autobiographical slant, noticeable in all subsequent works, as well as the tendency, noted by critic Giuliano Manacorda, "ribadire una tematica dalla quale egli sembra sin troppo condizionato" (to reiterate a thematics to which he seems excessively predisposed). Despite the qualified critical response to what may seem to be a narrow set of themes, Bellezza was hailed by Pier Paolo Pasolini as the best of the new poets of the 1970s...