Pitigrilli

Pitigrilli, the pseudonym for Dino Segre, (9 May 1893 - 8 May 1975) was an Italian writer who made his living as a journalist and novelist.^[1]

Early life to adulthood

He was born in Turin. His father was Jewish, his mother Catholic, and he grew up a Catholic. He graduated from the University of Turin, Faculty of Law in 1916.

He had a short-lived relationship with the poet Amalia Guglielminetti. At about this time he began his career as a journalist and novelist.

In 1924 he founded the literary magazine Grandi Firme, which attracted a large readership of young literati. The magazine lasted until 1938, when the Fascist Government banned it in accordance with the Race Laws.

Pitigrilli was a famous aphorist. Among his most well-known aphorisms are "Fragments: a providential resource for writers who don't know how to put together an entire book" and "Grammar: a complicated structure that teaches language but impedes speaking."

Travel and death

From 1930 he started traveling around Europe, staying mainly in Paris with brief periods in Italy. It was his experiences in Paris that led to his most famous novel, Cocaïne (1921). He returned to Italy in 1940 at the risk of being interned for being Jewish, but he fled with his family in 1943 to Switzerland, where he lived until 1947.

In 1948 he went to Argentina, which was already under the rule of Juan Perón, and remained there for ten years. He then returned to Paris but occasionally visited his house in Turin. He was in Turin when he died.

Collaboration with the Fascist regime

According to documents and accounts by members of the clandestine anti-fascist movement Giustizia e Liberta` (Justice and Freedom) operating in the city of Turin, Pitigrilli acted as an informant for the Fascist secret police OVRA .^[2] Since the fascist regime issued openly anti-Semitic “racial laws” and Pitigrilli was a Jew, he had credibility among anti-fascist activists. According to a statement of an Italian post-war government committee, “…the last doubt (on Pitigrilli being OVRA informant number 373) could not stand after the unequivocal and categorical testimonies … about encounters and confidential conversations that took place exclusively with Pitigrilli.”^{[citation needed]} It was later found that elements of these conversations were used by the Fascist secret police to carry out arrests and prosecutions of anti-fascist friends of Pitigrilli.

Works

• La moglie di Putifarre. Milano 1953
• La *piscina di Siloe. Milano 1948
• Le amanti. La decadenza del paradosso. Torino, Edit. Associati-Tip. Salussolia, 1938.
• Cocaina. Sonzogno, Milano, 1921
• Dolicocefala bionda. Sonzogno, Milano, 1936

translated in English

• Cocaine, New York: Greenberg, 1933. Reissued in 1974 by AND/OR Press, San Francisco.
• The Man Who Searched for Love, translated by Warre B. Wells. New York: R. M. McBride & Company, 1932.

References

1. ^ Pitigrilli's biography (in Italian)
2. ^ Alexander Stille. Benevolence and Betrayal, p. 356. Picador, 1991.

External links

• Pitigrilli website (in Italian)

Persondata
Name
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	9 May 1893
Place of birth
Date of death	8 May 1975
Place of death