Alessandro Bonsanti
Alessandro Bonsanti was an Italian author and playwright born on November 15, 1904, in Florence, Italy. Raised in a modest family, he initially studied engineering but later shifted to a writing career, publishing his first short story in 1928 and his first novel in 1929. Throughout the 1930s, Bonsanti contributed significantly to the literary scene, working with the journal Solaria and founding the magazine Letteratura, where he published his first play. His prolific writing included novels and plays, with his most notable work being the 2,000-page trilogy "La buca di San Colombano," which explores themes of memory through lyrical prose reminiscent of Marcel Proust. Bonsanti's narrative style emphasizes descriptive language, focusing on personal experiences over political events. In addition to his literary contributions, he held various roles in academia and cultural institutions, including directing the Gabinetto Scientifico-Letterario Viessieux and briefly serving as the mayor of Florence. He passed away in 1984, leaving behind a legacy rich in exploration of memory and identity in the human experience.
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Alessandro Bonsanti
Writer
- Born: November 15, 1904
- Birthplace: Florence, Italy
- Died: February 18, 1984
Biography
Alessandro Bonsanti was born on November 15, 1904, in Florence, Italy. His family was not wealthy, and Bonsanti grew up in the rural towns outside of the city. For a short time he studied engineering at the University of Florence, but at the age of twenty-one he completed one year of compulsory military service and then took a position as a bank teller in Milan to help support his parents.
In 1928, he published his first short story, “Briganti in Maremma,” about a farmer who shelters a bandit and makes love to the bandit’s mistress. The next year he published his first novel, La serva amorosa. He moved back to Florence, and from 1930 to 1934 he worked with Alberto Carocci on the journal Solaria. The journal’s publisher also produced Bonsanti’s first novel as well as his volume of stories, I caprici dell’Adriana (1934). In 1937, he founded Letteratura, a literary magazine that published his first play, Don Giovanni. That same year, he also published his third novel, Racconto militare, which drew on his military service. In the 1930’s, Bonsanti taught courses in theater history at the Conservatory of Music in Bologna. He eventually returned to Florence, where from 1941 to 1980 he was director of the Gabinetto Scientifico-Letterario Viessieux.
In this forty-year period, he published ten novels and three plays, plus his major work, the 2,000-page trilogy La buca di San Colombano (1964). The trilogy is the fullest expression of Bonsanti’s themes, such as the focus on memory, as well as his trademark lyrical prose. The work begins in the present, with the characters in their dotage, and wanders back in time to the characters’ youth. The novels revolve around the waiters, owner, and customers who frequent the titular café and their remembrances of their sometimes intertwined pasts. Bonsanti shows how in memory both the past and the present influence, and are influenced by, each individual’s perception.
Bonsanti focused on writing descriptive prose rather than depicting social or political events. His writing style has been compared to Marcel Proust’s in La recherché du temps perdu. The rhythm and melody of his language is characteristic of nineteenth century Italian prose. In 1968, Bonsanti focused on playwriting to present his ideas about memory and its relationship with the past and present. His plays, Ottaviano and Maria Stuarda, collected in Teatro domestico (1968), are about aging and memory. For example, in Ottaviano, the emperor persists in writing a memoir in spite of the fact that he realizes history will not remember him kindly. From 1979 to 1983, Bonsanti was director of the Archivio Contemporanco in Florence and was mayor of Florence before his death in 1984.