Cesare Pavese

Not much is known about his personal life except for the fact that he had a brief affair with actress Constance Dowling, to whom he dedicated his last novel.

The failed love affair coupled with depressive mental state and political disillusionment led him to commit suicide by having an overdose of barbiturates in a hotel room in Turin in 1950.

He was an atheist.

Cesare Pavese was the youngest of the five children born to a couple in Santo Stefano Belbo. Not much is known of his parents except the fact that his father died when he was six.

He received his early education at Santa Stephano Belbo. Thereafter, together with his family, he relocated to Turin. It was at Turin that he enrolled at a high school and came under the influence of Augusto Monti, a writer and educator.

Since young, he showed interest in English language literature. After completing high school, he enrolled at the University of Turin and graduated in letters from the same with a thesis on the poetry of Walt Whitman.

Though he was creatively proficient, he was denied of publishing works due to the fascists control over literature. It was due to the same that he took up a translating job for publisher, Frassinelli.

His profile included translating the works of classic and recent American and British authors such as Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and James Joyce. He even translated works by Herman Melville and Sherwood Anderson.

In 1934, he took up the position of an editor and translator for the left wing publisher, Giulio Einaudi. He edited the anti-fascist works in the magazine ‘La Cultura’

Alongside his literary career, he became an ardent supporter of the antifascist groups. In 1935, he was arrested and imprisoned for carrying letters of a political prisoner.

Following this, he was send to an internal exile in Southern Italy, a prison generally meant for prisoners with lesser political crimes. He was released the following year after the completion of his term.

In 1950, he was awarded with the Strega Prize for ‘La Bella Estate’, comprising three novellas: ‘La tenda’, written in 1940, ‘l diavolo sulle colline’ (1948) and ‘Tra donne sole’ (1949).