Giovanni Guareschi
Giovanni Guareschi was an Italian writer and journalist, born on May 1, 1908, in Fontanelle di Roccabianca, Parma. He began his career in journalism in the late 1920s and gained prominence as the editor of the satirical magazine Bertoldo. Guareschi's political writings often criticized the Fascist regime, leading to his imprisonment during World War II after he publicly insulted Mussolini. His experiences during the war informed his later works, including "My Secret Diary, 1943-1945."
Post-war, Guareschi created the beloved "Don Camillo" stories, which humorously depict the rivalry between a village priest and the communist mayor. These stories became incredibly popular and were adapted into films, significantly contributing to his fame. Guareschi also edited the magazine Candido, where he expressed controversial political opinions. His health declined in the 1950s, and he passed away on July 22, 1968. Many of his works continue to be published posthumously, maintaining his legacy as a significant figure in Italian literature and satire.
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Giovanni Guareschi
Author
- Born: May 1, 1908
- Birthplace: Fontanelle di Rocca Bianca, Parma, Italy
- Died: July 22, 1968
- Place of death: Cervia, Italy
Biography
Giovanni Guareschi was born May 1, 1908, in Fontanelle di Roccabianca, Parma, Italy, the son of landowner and merchant Augusto Guareschi and schoolteacher Lina Maghenzani Guareschi. Giovanni attended the University of Parma in 1927. However, his studies were curtailed after his parents went bankrupt in a financial crisis.
Guareschi worked as a doorman at a sugar refinery, a teacher at a boarding school, and a proofreader before becoming a journalist. He began his writing career as a reporter for a local newspaper. Beginning in 1929, he served a stint as editor of the magazine Corriere Emiliano, meanwhile working as a commercial artist, caricaturist, and journalist in Parma. Between 1936 and 1942, he was editor in chief in Milan for Bertoldo, a weekly magazine specializing in political satire, where he became popular for humorous essays, drawings, and fictional pieces that poked fun at those in power. He married childhood sweetheart Ennia Pallini in 1940. They had two children, Alberto and Carlotta. In 1941, he published his first book, La scoperta di Milano.
In 1942—the same year his second book, a collection of drawing-room farces, Duncan and Clotilda: An Extravaganza with a Long Digression, was released—Guareschi was imprisoned for publicly insulting and criticizing the government of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. He avoided trial by joining the Italian Army, and rose to the rank of artillery lieutenant. Guareschi was posted on the Eastern Front when Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in 1943. The Germans captured him, and as an enemy he was held with other Italian soldiers until the end of World War II in prison camps in Poland. During his confinement, his novel A Husband in Boarding School was published. Guareschi also wrote and illustrated his wartime experiences inMy Secret Diary, 1943-1945, published in 1949.
After the war, Guareschi founded and edited the humorous weekly magazine Candido, in which he continued to express controversial political opinions, especially attacking the Communists—whom he depicted as having an extra nostril—and supporting the Christian Democrats. His satires are credited with helping defeat the Communists in the 1948 elections; afterward, he criticized the Christian Democrats. In 1954, Guareschi was charged with libel after publishing a fake letter purportedly from resistance leader (later prime minister) Alcide De Gasperi, urging the Allies to bomb Rome. Guareschi was sentenced to a year in prison, but was released early for good behavior.
From the late 1940’s through the 1960’s, Guareschi produced the fiction for which he is best known, the self-illustrated Don Camillo stories, in which village priest Don Camillo battles Communist mayor Peppone. In a half-dozen books (beginning with The Little World of Don Camillo and ending with Don Camillo Meets the Flower Children), the two combatants vie for the social, political and moral lives of their constituents. Extremely popular with readers, the warmly humorous Don Camillo stories were adapted for the screen, with French character actor Fernandel (Fernand Contandin, 1902-1971) in the title role. Guareschi also produced a number of collections of autobiographical family stories from the early 1950’s onward, including The House That Nino Built, My Home Sweet Home, and Family Life (also known as The Family Guareschi: Chronicles of the Past and Present).
In ill health from the mid-1950’s, Guareschi resigned as editor of Candido in 1957. Although he continued to contribute satirical articles and books, his output diminished considerably. Giovanni Guareschi died of a heart attack on July 22, 1968. Many of his works were published posthumously.