Margherita Guidacci

Margherita Guidacci (April 25, 1921 – June 19, 1992), was an Italian poet born in Florence, Italy.[1] She graduated from the University of Florence in 1943 and traveled to England and Ireland in 1947.

Margherita Guidacci
Born	25 April 1921 Florence, Italy
Died	June 19, 1992 (aged 71) Rome, Italy
Occupation	Poet
Period	1950–1992
Genre	poetry
Notable works	Translations of Emily Dickinson, TS Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop. Introduced the word "paparazzi", coined English meaning and usage
Notable awards	1978 Biela Poesia (Il vuoto e le forme); 1987 Premio Caserta (complete works)
Spouse	Lucca Pinna

House where Margherita Guidacci lived, at Via della mattonaia 43

Guidacci married the sociologist Lucca Pinna in 1949, and they moved to Rome in 1957. The poet taught English language and literature at the Liceo Scientifico Cavour for ten years, from 1965 to 1975.[2]

Literary style

The poetry of Margherita Guidacci is deeply spiritual but not in the religious sense. Rather her poems include profound sentiments and a view of life as a search for regeneration and resurrection from death. Guidacci regarded life as a passage and its desolation and pain a means toward transformation beyond death.

Translator of English poets

Guidacci is noted for her Italian translations of English poets, including John Donne's sermons and Emily Dickinson's poetry.[3] T. S. Eliot[4] and Elizabeth Bishop are among other poets Guidacci translated into her native language.[5]

English education

Guidacci obtained the libera docenza in the English language and literature in 1972. From 1975 to 1981, she taught English and American Literature at the University of Macerata and the College of Maria Assunta attached to the Vatican in Rome, where she lived until her death in 1992.[6]

Literary awards

The year following her husband's death in 1977, Guidacci was awarded the Biela Poesia literary prize for her collection Il vuoto e le forme. Guidacci traveled to the United States in 1986, and was the recipient of the 1987 Premio Caserta for her complete works. Among literary prizes Guidacci was awarded are: Carducci Prize, 1957; Ceppo Prize, 1971; Lerici Prize, 1972; Gabbici Prize, 1974; Seanno Prize, 1976.[7]

Coined "paparazzi"

The English usage of the word paparazzi is credited to Margherita Guidacci’s translation of Victorian writer George Gissing’s travel book By the Ionian Sea (1901). A character in Margherita Guidacci's Sulle Rive dello Ionio (1957) is a restaurant-owner named Coriolano Paparazzo. The name was in turn chosen by Ennio Flaiano, the screenwriter of the Federico Fellini film, La Dolce Vita, who got it from Guidacci's book. By the late 1960s, the word, usually in the Italian plural form paparazzi, had entered the English lexicon as a generic term for intrusive photographers.[8][9]

Published works

• Guidacci, Margherita (1980). Brevi e lunghe: Poesie (Collana letteraria ; 5) (in Italian). Libreria Editrice Vaticana. ISBN 978-88-209-1328-1.
• Guidacci, Margherita (1989). Il buio e lo splendore (I Garzanti poesia) (in Italian). Garzanti. ISBN 978-88-11-63905-3.
• Guidacci, Margherita (1999). Prose e interviste (Egeria) (in Italian). Editrice C.R.T. ISBN 978-88-87296-62-4.

Translations

• Guidacci, Margherita (1989). A Book of Sibyls: Poems. Translated by Ruth Feldman. Rowan Tree Press. ISBN 978-0-937672-26-6.
• Guidacci, Margherita (April 1992). Landscape With Ruins: Selected Poetry of Margherita Guidacci. Translated by Ruth Feldman. Wayne State Univ Pr. ISBN 978-0-8143-2352-6.
• Guidacci, Margherita (2004). Selection of Modern Italian Poetry in Translation. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-7735-2697-8.[10]
• Guidacci, Margherita (1993). In the eastern sky: Selected poems of Margherita Guidacci. Dedalus. ISBN 978-1-873790-22-9.
• Guidacci, Margherita (1975). Poems from Neurosuite. Translated by Marina La Palma. Kelsey Street Press. External link in |publisher= (help)
• Guidacci, Margherita. Le Retable d'Issenheim. ARFUYEN.
• Guidacci, Margherita (Firenze 1921, Roma 1992). L'altare di Isenheim. Rusconi, Milano, 1980, Gambetti, 1997. Check date values in: |year= (help)
• Guidacci, Margherita. Isenheimski oltar. Translated from the Italian by Gérard Pfister. Jezik/Language: Croatian.

References

1. (in French) Mort de Margherita Guidacci, Angèle Paoli
2. Encyclopedia of Italian literary studies: A-J, index, Volume 1 edited by Gaetana Marrone, Paolo Puppa, Luca Somigli
3. Rizzo, Patricia Thompson. Emily Dickinson and the "blue peninsula": Dickinson's reception in Italy The Emily Dickinson Journal - Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 1999, pp. 97-107
4. T. S. Eliot Collection, 1905, 1917-1979 Archived 2010-06-06 at the Wayback Machine. Harry Ranson Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin
5. Encyclopedia of Italian literary studies Margherita Guidacci; Biography; published essays, translations, poems
6. Italian Women Writers Margherita Guidacci
7. An Encyclopedia of continental women writers, Volume 1; By Katharina M. Wilson
8. Word Origins and History Archived 2010-12-20 at the Wayback Machine paparazzi
9. The Hollywood Scandal Almanac, by Jerry Roberts, p. 120
10. Payne, R.L. (2004). Selection of Modern Italian Poetry in Translation. MQUP. p. 186. ISBN 9780773571846. Retrieved 2015-04-13.

External links

• Contemporary Italian Women Poets
• Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies - Margherita Guidacci, edited by Gaetana Marrone, Paolo Puppa