Giovanni Papini

Italian journalist, polemical literary critic, essayist, poet, and novelist, whose avant-garde polemics made him one of the most controversial Italian literary figures in the early and mid-20th century. Giovanni Papini advocated breaking with tradition and deferring to the new generation, but after World War II he lost his influence as an opinion leader. His ideological development was full of paradoxes: he was first an anti-nationalist, then a staunch nationalist; first an agnostic, but then turned to Roman Catholicism. He was a restless intellectual. Papini was a prolific writer, published over eighty books on philosophy, theory and literary criticism, as well as novels and short stories.

He died 8 July 1956, Florence, Italy.