Grazia Deledda

Grazia Deledda (full name Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda) was born in Nuoro, in the mountainous region of Central Sardinia, on September 27, 1871. She did not pursue higher education but gained literary knowledge by reading the Bible and novels from the late 19th century. At the age of 17, she published her first novella titled "Sangue Sardo." Early in her career, Grazia Deledda signed her works with the pseudonyms Ilia di San-Ismael or G. Ratzia to avoid shocking the society of her time. Through her initial writings, she sought to depict the world of Sardinian peasants and shepherds, which was largely unknown to most Italians. The publication of her work "La via del Male" in 1896 was enthusiastically received by Luigi Capuana, a famous critic. Shortly after her marriage to Palmiro Madesani, a government official, in the early 1900s, she settled in Rome. This marked the beginning of her prolific writing period, which included works such as "Elias Portolu" (1900), "Cenere" (1904), "L' Edera" (1906), "Canne al Vento" (1913), "Marianna Sirca" (1915), "L' incendio nell' Uliveto" (1918), and "La Madre" (1920). The latter was considered by D. H. Lawrence to be the most powerful in terms of eroticism and passion. In 1926, she won the Nobel Prize, the second for Italian literature. Grazia Deledda passed away in Rome on August 15, 1936.