Giuseppe Ungaretti

Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970), Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic, and academic. Influenced by symbolism, especially the French-Romanian poet Tristan Tzara, he was briefly aligned with futurism, Ungaretti lead the experimental trend known as Ermetismo ("Hermeticism"), in which he advocated “a personal approach to poetry,” and  became one of the most significant contributors to 20th century Italian literature. Ungaretti debuted as a poet while fighting in the trenches in WWI, later publishing his iconic and possibly best-known book, L'Allegria (Cheerfulness, Swist translation). During the interwar period, he was a foreign-based correspondent, but after spending several years in Brazil, he returned to Italy during World War II, and was assigned a teaching post at the University of Rome, where he spent his final decades. In 1970, he was the initial recipient of the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature, awarded biennially by World Literature Today.