Vittorini, Elio [key], 1908–66, Italian novelist, b. Syracuse, Sicily. Between 1934 and 1941 Vittorini translated the works of D. H. Lawrence, Poe, Faulkner, Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, and others. His first novel, In Sicily (1938, tr. 1949), caused his imprisonment by the Fascist government. Vittorini's works, among them The Twilight of the Elephant (1947, tr. 1951) and The Red Carnation (1948, tr. 1952), make a serious attempt to assess the Fascist experience. His later works include The Dark and the Light (1956, tr. 1961); Diario in pubblico (1957), essays; and Le città nel mondo (1969).
See D. Heiney, Three Italian Novelists (1968).
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