An examination of the history of ideas in twentieth-century Italy is impossible without considering Elio Vittorini's role. He was a writer of inspiring originality; he constantly participated in and, at times, led the debate on aesthetic, social, cultural, and political issues in his country; and throughout his life he probed, and argued about, the relationship between art and existence. Vittorini was both an artist and a cultural entrepreneur. He wrote six novels--of which one is unfinished and another is a long fragment--and some fifty short stories, while his many articles on literature, fine arts, politics, culture, and book and movie reviews appeared in approximately forty newspapers, journals, and magazines. In addition, he translated works of English and American literature, founded two cultural reviews, and edited three anthologies.

Vittorini was born in Siracusa, a small city in Sicily, on 23 July 1908, to Sebastiano Vittorini, a railroad employee, and Lucia Sgandurra...