The literary rigor Piero Jahier imposed on himself as a writer seems to be an artistic manifestation of a profoundly moral and deeply religious forma mentis firmly rooted in him since childhood. His was a temperament of uncompromising integrity, which he persevered to maintain uncontaminated throughout his life, at times at the expense of his own personal safety. His style and themes betray his strong moral temperament and the Protestant concept of good and evil. The biographical element becomes interconnected with the author's inspiration: in Jahier's work one finds the most salient example of the conflation of lyricism and naturalism.

Jahier was born in Genoa on 11 April 1884. His father, Pier Enrico Jahier, was an evangelical minister of Waldensian origin, while his mother, Giuseppina Danti Jahier, a convert to Protestantism, was Florentine. His parents had met in the church of the Darbist Brothers in Florence while his father was...