Davide Lajolo
Short biography
Davide Lajolo was born in the village of Vinchio in
1912 and died in 1984 in Milan, a city in which he
lived and worked for many years.
In 1943 he took part in the Italian Resistance in a
territory near to his village and he became famous
with the nickname of Captain Ulysses.
Then he
directed the newspaper “L’Unità” (1945-1958) and
was elected a Member of the Italian Parliament
(1958-1972).
He wrote the first biography of the author Cesare
Pavese, “The absurd vice” (1960), which was
translated in many countries throughout Europe and
in the U.S.A. He also wrote the biography of
another author, Beppe Fenoglio, “A warrior of
Cromwell on the Langhe’s hills” (1978).
In 1963 he wrote the story of his own crisis regarding
his passage from Fascism to the Resistance,
titled “The Turncoat” and in 1981, a diary about his
life from 1945 to 1968, “Twenty-four years”.
He devoted himself to literature and wrote many
books about his experience and the stories and
legends of his village, titled “My people” (1977),
“Seeing the grass from the roots” (1977 Viareggio
Prize for Literature), “The country blackbird, the city
blackbird” (1983), and many others.
He also knew and became the friend of many poets,
writers and painters. Particularly, his last book was
dedicated to painters with the title “The men of the
rainbow” (1984 )
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