Curzio Malaparte Biography and List of Works

One of the most influential Italian writers of the mid-20th century. Like many young Italians in the 1920s, Malaparte converted to fascism. He also voiced his political views in his own magazine Prospettive (1937) and other publications. Malaparte's early fiction was also pro-fascist.

Curzio Malaparte was born in Prato, near Florence. His father, Erwin Suckert, was a German and his mother was an Italian. Malaparte attended Ciognini College, Prato. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the Garibaldian League and served on the French front until May 1915. He transferred to the Italian army and fought with the Alpine troops. In 1918 he started his career as a journalist.

Malaparte founded in 1924 the Roman periodical La Conquista dello stato. In 1926 he founded with Massimo Bontempelli (1878-1960) the literary quarterly 900. Later he became a co-editor of Fiera Letteraria (1928-31), and an editor of La Stampa in Turin.

Malaparte published his first books in the early 1920s. His confessional war novel, LA RIVOLTA DEI SANTI (1921), criticized the corrupt Rome as the real enemy. In TECHNIQUE DU COUP D'ETAT (1931) Malaparte attacked both Hitler and Mussolini. This led to his 'internal exile' from 1933 to 1938 on the island of Lipari. He was freed on the personal intervention of Mussolini's son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano.

During the World War II Malaparte worked as a correspondent for Corriere della Sera. His reports angered the Fascist and Nazi authorities. He was imprisoned for a short time in a concentration camp. Later he worked with the Allied armies as journalist.

After the war he gained international fame with two war novels: KAPUTT (1944), which was partly written in Finland during the war, and LA PELLE (1949), its sequel, which was placed on the index of books forbidden to Roman Catholics. Episodic Kaputt was based on his own experiences and centred on the Fascist elite, whose world view is set against the battlefields of Europe. Malaparte depicted frozen horses on the Lake Ladoga at the Finnish front, life in the Warsaw ghetto, politicians behind the war scene and degenerate diplomatic corps, all with grotesque humour. The book became a bestseller and was translated into ten languages.

In 1947 Malaparte settled in Paris and wrote dramas without much success. His play DU CÔTÉ DE CHEZ PROUST was based on the life of Marcel Proust, and DAS KAPITAL was a portrait of Karl Marx. CRISTO PROHIBITO was made into a moderately successful film in 1950.

Towards the end of his life, Malaparte was attracted to the Maoist model of communism, but his journey to China was cut short by illness. His final book, MALEDETTI TOSCANI, appeared six years later. Malaparte died of lung cancer in Rome on July 19, 1957. On his deathbed Malaparte converted to Catholicism.

For further information: World Authors 1900-1950 by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); Malaparte in Jassy by S. Astrachan (1989); Twentieth Century Writing, ed by K. Richardson (1969) Lähikuva Curzio Malapartesta by Matti Kurjensaari, foreword for the Finnish translation of Kaputt (1967) - Other writers with nazi or fascist sympathies: Ezra Pound, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Knut Hamsun

LA RIVOLTA DEI SANTI MALEDETTI, (1921)