Romano Bilenchi
Romano Bilenchi was an Italian author born in 1909 in Colle Val d'Elsa, Tuscany. Orphaned at a young age, he faced health challenges, including a diagnosis of bone tuberculosis, which interrupted his education. Despite these obstacles, he embarked on a career in journalism and literature, publishing his first work in 1931. Bilenchi's early writing was characterized by a rough style but evolved into a more refined approach as he explored themes of loss, familial relationships, and the complexities of adolescence. After initially engaging with the Fascist movement, he later became disillusioned and joined a dissident journal, reflecting his changing political views. He aligned himself with the Communist Party in 1942 and contributed to its publications, although his criticism of the Soviet Union led to a temporary loss of position. Throughout his life, Bilenchi revisited and reworked his writings, culminating in various collections, including "Gli anni impossibili" and "Amici." He received the Accademia dei Lincei prize in 1982 and continued to refine his literary contributions until his death in 1989. Bilenchi's works often resonate with themes of emotional complexity and the human condition, marking him as a significant figure in 20th-century Italian literature.
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Romano Bilenchi
Writer
- Born: November 9, 1909
- Birthplace: Colle di Val d'Elsa, Siena, Tuscany, Italy
- Died: November 18, 1989
Biography
Romano Bilenchi was born in1909 in Colle Val d’Elsa, near Siena, in Italy’s province of Tuscany. His father was Tarquinic Bilenchi; his mother, Emma Bordi. His father, a manufacturer, died when Bilenchi was only six years old, and he was raised subsequently by his mother and her parents. He attended high school in Florence, but a diagnosis of bone tuberculosis in 1927 forced an interruption of his studies, and he never graduated from the University of Bologna, which he entered in 1930. Despite early ill health, he lived until the age of eighty, dying in Florence in 1989.
He obtained a job as a journalist for a new biweekly, Il selvaggio, whose editor helped Bilenchi publish his first work, Vita di Pisto, in 1931 by serializing it in the newspaper. Similarly, a history of socialism in the area was first serialized, then published in 1933. Later, Bilenchi was to renounce this rough and somewhat crude style of writing in favor of a much sparer, more refined style. Like many young men of the time, Bilenchi joined the Fascist movement in its earlier stages, but he became disillusioned with it, and in 1934 he joined the staff of a dissident journal, L’Universal, and moved to Florence.
It was in Florence that his first two collections of stories were published: Il capofabbrica (the plant manager, 1935) and Anna e Bruno, e altri racconti (Anna and Bruno, and other stories, 1938). They show a new turn towards autobiography, with the focus on maturation and adolescence. Absent fathers and idolized mothers and grandmothers reflect Bilenchi’s thoughts on loss and anxiety and on “the pain of living,” themes that echoed through his later work. His Conservatorio di Santa Teresa (1940) is a complex work that underwent a number of revisions. Bilenchi often seemed to feel the need to keep reworking original material. Not till 1985 did a version that satisfied him come out. The novel was typical in its avoidance of specific places or dates, so that no exact parallel with real life events is possible, though parts of the book are clearly autobiographical. Further short stories followed.
In 1942 Bilenchi joined the Communist Party, and the next few years were devoted to being managing editor of its daily papers in Florence, La Nazione del Popolo and Il Nuovo Corriere. He built up the reputation of the latter paper through his literary contacts; Italy’s Communist Party was not especially. However, his criticism of Russia’s invasion of Hungary in 1956 caused him to lose his post, and for a while he resigned Party membership. After a long silence, a novella, Il bottone di Stalingrado, came out in 1972. It was created from three shorter stories that concerned political choices made in the recent past. In 1973 he married Maria Ferrarra. In 1984 he rearranged various novella and short stories as Gli anni impossibili (the impossible years), and in1988 a volume entitled Amici (friends) appeared; it was made out of stories and memoirs. From then on he was engaged in revising his works so that they fitted into an integrated project simply called Opere (works) that was published posthumously in1997. In 1982 he received the prestigious Accademia dei Lincei prize.