Ignazio Silone

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Image:Silone.JPG Ignazio Silone (May 1, 1900 - August 22, 1978) is the pseudonym of Secondo Tranquilli, an Italian author.

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Early life and career

He was born in the town of Pescina in the Abruzzo region and lost many family members, including his mother, in the 1915 Avezzano earthquake. His father had died in 1911. Silone joined the Young Socialists group of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), rising to be their leader, and was arrested for the first time in an anti-World War I protest in 1917.

He was a founder member of the breakaway Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1921, becoming one of its covert leaders during the Fascist regime. Ignazio's brother Romulo Tranquilli was arrested in 1928 for being a member of the PCI, and he died in prison in 1931 as a result of the severe beatings he received.

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Opposition to Stalinism and return to the PSI

Ignazio Silone left Italy in 1928 on a mission to the Soviet Union, and settled in Switzerland in 1930. While there, he declared his opposition to Joseph Stalin, as well as his support for Leon Trotsky and Grigory Zinoviev; consequently, he was expelled from the PCI by the Stalinist leadership. In the same year he began writing his first novel, Fontamara.

The US Army printed unauthorised 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. He returned to Italy only in 1945, when he was elected as a PSI deputy. He left politics, and founded the magazine Tempo.

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Controversy

Two Italian historians, Dario Biocca and Mauro Canali, began finding documents in 1997 that suggest Silone may have been acting as an informant for the Fascist police from 1924 until he left for Switzerland in 1930. However, it is more likely than not that their accusations are unsubstantiated, despite their essays being reviewed in a positive light by leaders such as The New York Times Review and others.

The ultimate question came to whether Silone was a Fascist, and despite a few instances where he may have provided information in return for the release of his brother, who was captured, tortured, and ultimately murdered by the Fascists in 1931, the attacks made by Biocca and Canali were unfounded and in some cases fabricated. The debate goes on in Italy, with people in both camps, and it has since also been argued that the charge is attempt to ruin Silone's reputation after his death is a retaliation for his leaving the PCI and PSI.

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Works

  • Fontamara (1931)
  • Bread and Wine (Vino E Pane) (1937)
  • The School for Dictators (1938)
  • The Living Thoughts of Mazzini (1939)
  • The Seed Beneath the Snow (1940)
  • The God That Failed (1949)
  • Emergency Exit (1951)
  • Handful of Blackberries (1952)
  • The Story of a Humble Christian (1968)
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References

fr:Ignazio Silone it:Ignazio Silone hu:Ignazio Silone tr:Ignazio Silone

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