Pirandello was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934 for his “bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage.” His plays are still regarded as groundbreaking and a major influence on modernist and postmodernist theater. Despite this disappointment and other disagreements with Mussolini, Pirandello remained a loyal fascist until his death. Il Duce, however, although expressing interest in his work, never gave financial support and the experimental company disbanded in 1928. His period as a major dramatist began with Right You Are (If You Think So) in 1916 and culminated with his two greatest plays, Six Characters in Search of an Author (19) and Henry IV (1922), now both newly edited and translated by Martha Witt and Mary Ann Frese Witt and published by Italica Press.Ī member of the Fascist Party as early as 1923, Pirandello hoped that Mussolini would support the Teatro d’Arte, which he began to direct in 1925, staging his own plays, some foreign plays, and the works of contemporary Italian dramatists, including Massimo Bontempelli. His early plays such as Sicilian Limes and Liolà explore the Sicilian mentality and culture, contrasting it with those of the mainland. He published his first - still his best-known - novel, The Late Mattia Pascal, in 1904 and an important theoretical essay, “On Humor,” in 1908. Needing to work, Pirandello taught at the Magistero, or normal school. Antonietta began to suffer from severe mental problems from which she never recovered, and she was eventually placed in an institution. In 1903 the failure of the family sulfur mines caused severe financial problems for Pirandello, his wife, and their three children Fausto, Stefano, and Lietta. He began to write short stories - eventually hundreds of them - and to adapt some of them for the stage. The couple settled in Rome, where Pirandello became acquainted with other writers. In 1894 he married Antonietta Portulano, the daughter of one of his father’s colleagues. He initiated his writing career as a poet. He left Sicily to study in Rome and eventually completed a doctorate in linguistics at the University of Bonn in 1891 with a dissertation on the dialect of his home town. Luigi Pirandello was born on Jin Kaos, near Agrigento in Sicily, where his father owned sulfur mines.

Pirandello author