In a diary entry dated 19 June 1910 and published in Appunti e note di diario (Comments and Notes from a Diary, 1953), Scipio Slataper writes: "Morire in gioventù è necessario per le vite grandi. Perché esse rubano agli anni a venire forza e energia per il presente, e devono morire perché son vissute anche di tutti gli anni futuri" (It is necessary for those who have important lives to die young, because they steal strength and energy from the years to come, and because they have lived off of all their future years as well). Although in this particular remark he was not referring to his own experience, these words nonetheless depict accurately the author's short, intense life and arguably serve as the epigraph to his body of work. One of the most significant writers of his generation to be born in Trieste, Slataper matured intellectually in...