Pirandello: Mini Biography

It might interest my readers to learn a but more about Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934. He was born in Girgenti, Sicily and studied philology at Rome and at Bonn. His dissertation was on the dialect of his native town (1891). Shortly after graduation he became a professor of aesthetics and stylistics at the Real Istituto di Magistere Femminile at Rome, a position which he held for some 25 years. Pirandello authored a vast opus, beginning with his output of novellas which were collected under the title Novelle per un anno (15 vols., 1922-37). His greatest achievement, however, is said to be in his plays. He wrote a large number of dramas which were published between 1918 and 1935 under the collective title of Maschere nude (Naked Masks). A very active, questioning, searching life. Perhaps not overly happy, but nonetheless well lived.