Piero Jahier
Piero Jahier was an Italian writer and intellectual born into a religious family in Genoa, later moving to the Alpine town of Susa. His early life was marked by tragedy when his father, a Waldensian minister, died by suicide, deeply affecting Jahier’s worldview. Initially pursuing a career in theology, he shifted paths to work for the Adriatic Railroad Company and began contributing to the cultural journal La voce, focusing on themes of religion and philosophy. Jahier's literary career blossomed amid personal and societal upheaval, including his service in World War I, where he edited a newspaper for soldiers and penned an autobiographical memoir reflecting on his father's death. Following the war, he engaged in journalism while opposing Fascism, even as he faced repression for his beliefs. After losing his wife in 1945, Jahier returned to Florence, where he dedicated himself to translating works of notable authors and expanding his own poetic voice, leading to a posthumous three-volume collection of his poetry. His literary contributions and commitment to social reform left a lasting impact on future poets, including Eugenio Montale.
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Piero Jahier
- Born: April 11, 1884
- Birthplace: Genoa, Italy
- Died: November 19, 1966
Biography
Born to an evangelical Waldensian minister and his Protestant convert wife, at the age of five Piero Jahier moved from Genoa to the small Alpine town of Susa. Eight years later, Jahier’s father committed suicide in the wake of an adulterous affair, leaving the family in a precarious financial position. Attempting to balance his family obligations with his own ambitions, Jahier at first attended the Waldensian academy of theology in Genoa; however, he quit after two years to take a job in the administration of the Adriatic Railroad Company. At the same time, he began contributing regularly to the cultural journal La voce, initially writing on religion and philosophy.
In 1911, Jahier married Elena Rocher, with whom he would have four children, and received his law degree from the University of Urbino. Two years later, Jahier also received a degree in French literature from the University of Turin. Around this time, he also began publishing poetry, although his first collection of verse would not appear until almost fifty years later. His literary endeavors were interrupted by World War I, and in 1915, the year his first novel appeared, Jahier volunteered for service in the Italian Alpine corps. Jahier spent the next four years editing four years editing L’astico, the only newspaper written by soldiers serving in the trenches. He also worked on his autobiographical memoir, Ragazzo, in which he revisited his father’s suicide.
After the war, Jahier worked on another newspaper, Il nuovo contadino, but doubts about the ethics of those controlling the paper caused his to resign, return to the railroads, and then to align himself with those working for democratic social reform. When the Fascist Party gained control of his country, Jahier refused to accept dictator Benito Mussolini’s invitation to edit the party’s own newspaper. Blacklisted and even beaten by Fascist thugs, Jahier then joined the anti-Fascist group “Italia Libera” and helped publish the anti-Fascist newspaper Non mollare. After his wife died in 1945, Jahier moved from Bologna, where he had been moved against his will, back to Florence, where he worked on translations of such foreign authors as Joseph Conrad, Wilkie Collins, Molière, Graham Greene, and Lin Yu T’ang. He also began working once more on his own poetry, which was eventually published in a three-volume collection. The great humanity and humility that shines through his work influenced such successors as Eugenio Montale.