Piero Jahier's literary work presents the reader with one main feature: the poetics of "every man," in which the writer is a witness, as well as an interpreter, of the contradictory and brutal reality of life. Jahier's works are still relevant today and in large measure constitute an attempt to write about certain painful experiences in life. Intentionally employing an informal voice and style in both his poetry and prose, he writes with a profound sense of humanitas. His legacy of humanitas can be traced in the works of major twentieth-century Italian authors such as Guido Gozzano, Sergio Corazzini, Umberto Saba, and Eugenio Montale.

Jahier was born in Genoa on 11 April 1884 to Pier Enrico Jahier, a Waldensian evangelist minister from the Val d'Aosta, and Giuseppina Danti Jahier, a Florentine Catholic who converted to Protestantism. Jahier's parents had met in Florence when his father was employed as a librarian...