Giovanni Guareschi Biography and List of Works

Italian journalist, humorist, and novelist, famous for his stories of an Italian village where Father Camillo, the Catholic priest, is constantly in trouble with the local Communist chief Peppone. These two Tom and Jerry figures and their ideological disputes are depicted with warm humour and understanding.

"... Posso fare qualche cosa per lei?"
"Si" ruggi Peppone. "Potete andare all'inferno voi e tutti i preti dell'universo!"
"Troppa gente, compagno. Non mi piacciono i viaggi in comitiva" rispos don Camillo.
(from Don Camillo Meets the Flower Children, 1968)

Guareschi was born in Fontanelle di Roccabianca, near Parma. His father was a landowner and merchant, his mother a teacher. They lost all their money in the financial crisis of 1926-27 and Guareschi was unable to continue his studies at school. He worked then as a doorman at a sugar refinery in Parma before entering into journalism. Guareschi first wrote for a local newspaper. In 1929 he became editor of the magazine Corriere Emiliano, and from 1936 to 1943 he was the chief editor of the humorous magazine Bertoldo.

During World War II Guareschi joined the Italian Army - partly to avoid a trial after he had criticized Mussolini's government. When the Allies signed an armistice with Italy, Guareschi was arrested by the Germans, and sent to a concentration camp in Poland. These experiences Guaraschi described in his war memoirs DIARIO CLANDESTINO 1943-45.

In 1945 Guareschi founded the satirical and Monarchist weekly Candido, where his writings mostly attacked the Communist and were then used by the anti-Communist block for their purposes. However, Guareschi also mocked the government. In 1954 he published offending letters allegedly written by Alcide de Gasperi, leader of the Christian Democratic Party and the Prime Minister. These wartime letters contained a suggestion by De Gasperi, then a leader in the Resistance, that the British military authorities bomb Rome in order to demoralize supporters of Germany and end the war sooner. De Gasperi denied authorship and successfully sued, and Guareschi was sentenced to a year in jail for libel.

In the 1950s Guareschi's Father Camillo short stories made him one of the most popular writers in Italy. In these stories Guareschi depicted a small village by the River Po, where a strong parish priest, Don Camillo, and a Communist mayor, Peppone, have opposite views in all possible social, political, moral, and other issues. The debate between Communist block and Western World, right and left, was touched with light satire and this skill to make both sides look funny gained the author a wide audience. Many of the Father Camillo stories were also adapted into screen. The title role was played by French-born character actor Fernandel.

Guareschi and Finland: Guareaschi's books have been very popular in Finland and read as comments on contemporary politics. Similarities between the political situation in Finland and Italy are several: strong Communist movement, clear dichotomy between left and right, influential church institution. When the Reds lost Finnish Civil War (1917-18), the Communist Party was more or less illegal in the 1920s and 1930s. After World War II the Communist movement gained strong support in parliament elections and in local politics. Ideological debate did not have so deep religious basis as in Guareschi's works, but men of principle were as stubborn in the backwoods of Finland as in the small village by the river Po. - Guareschi's popularity started to decrease with the fall of the Communist movement, but in the late 1988 his short stories were reprinted by the publishing house WSOY in the Bestsellers series.

For further reading: World Authors 1900-1950, ed. by Martin Seymor-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); My Secret Diary by Giovanni Guareschi (1958); My Home, Sweet Home by Giovanni Guareschi (1966); The Family Guareschi by Giovanni Guareschi (1970); Catholic Authors, ed. by M. Hoehn (1952).

Camillo films starring Fernandel (Fernand Contandin, 1902-1971): Le Petit monde de Don Camillo / The Little World of Don Camillo, dir. by Julien Duvivier; The Return of Don Camillo dir. by Julien Duvivier (1953); La Grande bagarre de Don Camillo / Don Camillo's Last Round dir by Carmine Gallone (1955); Don Camillo Monseigneur dir. by Carmine Gallone (1961); Don Camillo in Moskow dir. by Luigi Comencini (1965). The sixth Don Camillo film in the Fernandel-Cervi series was never completed. - Gino Cervi (1901-1974). Italian actor, who was best known in the post-war years for his role as Peppone. Cervi's prolific career spanned five decades. - Last Don Camillo films: Don Camillo e giovani d'oggi (1972) starring Lioner Strander as Peppone, the Communist mayor, and Gastone Moschin as Don Camillo; Don Camillo (1983), starring Terence Hill.

LA SCOPERTA DI MILANO, (1941)