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Secondino Tranquilli (1 May 1900 – 22 August 1978), known by the pseudonym Ignazio Silone (/sɪˈloʊni/, Italian: [iɲˈɲattsjo siˈloːne]), was an Italian political leader, novelist, and short-story writer, world-famous during World War II for his powerful anti-fascist novels. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature ten times.[1][2]

Ignazio Silone
Member of the Constituent Assembly
In office
11 June 1946 – 31 January 1948
ConstituencyL'Aquila (XXI)
Personal details
Born
Secondino Tranquilli

(1900-05-01)1 May 1900
Pescina dei Marsi, Italy
Died22 August 1978(1978-08-22) (aged 78)
Geneva, Switzerland
Political partyPSI (1917-1921; 1930-1947)
PCd'I (1921-1930)
UdS (1948-1949)
PSU (1949-1951)
PSDI (1951-1954)
Independent (1954-1978)
OccupationAuthor, politician

Early life


Silone was born in a rural family, in the town of Pescina in the Abruzzo region. His father Paolo Tranquilli died in 1911, and in the 1915 Avezzano earthquake he lost many of his family members, including his mother, Marianna Delli Quadri. He left his hometown and finished high school. In 1917, Silone joined the Young Socialists group of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), rising to be their leader.[2]

He was a founding member of the breakaway Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) in 1921 and became one of its covert leaders during the Fascist regime. Ignazio's brother Romolo Tranquilli was arrested in 1928 for being a member of the PCd'I and died in prison in 1931 as a result of the severe beatings he received.[2]


Opposition to Stalinism, return to the PSI and breakaway socialist activity


Silone in the 1920s.
Silone in the 1920s.

Silone left Italy in 1927 on a mission to the Soviet Union and settled in Switzerland in 1930. While there, he declared his opposition to Joseph Stalin and the leadership of Comintern; consequently, he was expelled from the PCd'I and returned to the PSI. He suffered from tuberculosis and severe clinical depression and spent nearly a year in Swiss clinics; in Switzerland, Aline Valangin helped and played host to him and other migrants. As he recovered, Silone began writing his first novel, Fontamara, published in German translation in 1933. The English edition, first published by Penguin Books in September 1934, went through frequent reprintings during the 1930s, with the events of the Spanish Civil War and the escalation towards the outbreak of World War II increasing attention for its subject material.[2]

In the course of World War II, Silone became the leader of a clandestine socialist organization operating from Switzerland to support resistance groups in Nazi Germany-occupied Northern Italy. He also became an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) agent under the pseudonym of Len. The United States Army printed unauthorized versions of Fontamara and Bread and Wine and distributed them to the Italians during the liberation of Italy after 1943. These two books together with The Seed Beneath the Snow form the Abruzzo Trilogy. Silone returned to Italy only in 1944, and two years later he was elected as a PSI deputy.[2]

In 1948 Silone was a founder of the breakaway Union of Socialists (Unione dei Socialisti; UdS), succeeding Ivan Matteo Lombardo as the party's leader in June 1949.[3] In December of that year the UdS was dissolved, and its members (including Silone) joined the Unitary Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Unitario; PSU).[4] Two years later, in 1951, the PSU merged with Giuseppe Saragat's Italian Socialist Workers' Party (Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani; PSLI) to form the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano; PSDI). Saragat encouraged Silone to stand for the Senate on the PSDI list in the 1953 Italian general election, but the experience was a failure, and from then on he spurned any active participation in Italian politics.[5]


Later writing and awards


Following his contribution to the anti-communist anthology The God That Failed (1949), Silone joined the Congress of Cultural Freedom and edited Tempo Presente together with Nicola Chiaromonte.[6] In 1967, with the discovery that the journal received secret funds from the United States Central Intelligence Agency, Silone resigned and devoted all his energies to writing novels and autobiographical essays.[2]

In 1969, he was awarded the Jerusalem Prize, which goes to writers who deal with the theme of individual freedom and society. In 1971, he was awarded the prestigious Prix mondial Cino Del Duca.[2]


Controversy


Silone in his last years.
Silone in his last years.

In the 1990s, Italian historians Dario Biocca and Mauro Canali found documents that implied that Silone had acted as an informant for the Fascist police from 1919 until 1930. It is believed that the reason he broke from the Fascist police is that they tortured his brother. The two historians published the results of their research in a work titled L'informatore. Silone, i comunisti e la polizia.[2]

A 2005 biography by Biocca also includes documents showing Silone's involvement with American intelligence (the OSS) during and after World War II, suggesting that Silone's political stands (as well as extensive literary work) should be reconsidered in light of a more complex personality and political engagements.[7]


Personal life


Ignazio Silone was married to Darina Laracy (1917-2003), an Irish student of Italian literature and journalist. He died in Geneva, Switzerland in 1978.


Works



Novels



Essays


Three of Silone's poems were included by Hanns Eisler in his Deutsche Sinfonie, along with poetry by Bertolt Brecht.


Theater



Further reading



Cinematic versions



References


  1. "Nomination Database". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  2. "Ignazio Silone | Italian author". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  3. Camille M. Cianfarra, 'Vatican Will Back Regime in Election', New York Times, 13 February 1948, p. 10.
  4. Walter Lucas, 'New Socialist Party Rises On Italian Political Scene', Christian Science Monitor, 14 December 1949, p. 12.
  5. Frank Kelley, 'Italy Girds for Vote As Reds Cry Swindle', New York Herald Tribune, 19 April 1953, A2.
  6. Irving Kristol (Fall 1989). "The Way We Were". The National Interest (17): 73. JSTOR 42896759.
  7. Wheatcroft, Geoffrey (21 August 2009). "Book Review | 'Bitter Spring: A Life of Ignazio Silone,' by Stanislao G. Pugliese". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
  8. The title page states "Translated by Darina Tranquilli," but, as "Tranquilli" was Silone's original surname, the title page refers to Darina Silone.
  9. The dust jacket states, "While the principal characters in this play are the same as those in Silone's Bread and Wine, this is not a dramatization of the novel."

Resources




Wikiquote has quotations related to Ignazio Silone.
Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by International President of PEN International
1946–1947		 Succeeded by

На других языках

- [en] Ignazio Silone

[ru] Силоне, Иньяцио

Иньяцио Силоне, собственно Сегондино Транквилли (итал. Ignazio Silone, Secondino Tranquilli; 1 мая 1900 (1900-05-01), Пешина — 22 августа 1978, Женева) — итальянский писатель, публицист, политический деятель социалистической ориентации.


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