  elsa morante (18 august 191225 november 1985) was an italian novelist, perhaps best known for her novel la storia (history). ==life and career== elsa morante was born in rome, italy, in 1912, the daughter of irma (nÃ©e poggibonsi), a schoolteacher, and francesco lo monaco, from sicily. her mother was jewish and her father was sicilian.http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/morante-elsa her stepfather was augusto morante. except for a period during world war ii, she resided in her home city until her death in 1985. she married the novelist alberto moravia in 1941, and through him she met many of the leading italian thinkers and writers of the day. morante began writing short stories which appeared in various publications and periodicals, including periodicals for children, in the 1930s. her first book was a collection of some of the stories, il gioco segreto, published in 1941. it was followed in 1942 by a children's book, le bellissime avventure di caterÃ¬ dalla trecciolina (rewritten in 1959 as le straordinarie avventure di caterina). towards the end of world war ii, morante with her husband, novelist and film critic alberto moravia, fearful because both were of half jewish descent, fled to the area around the ciociara region near rome, a flight that inspired morante's "la storia" and moravia's "la ciociara" (translated into english as "two women" and later made into a film with sofia loren). southern italy is the backdrop for much of her work. she began translating katherine mansfield during this period, as well as working on her first novelâshe even risked returning to war-torn rome to retrieve the manuscript of "menzogna e sortilegio" and obtain winter clothes. following the war, morante and moravia met american translator william weaver, who helped them to find an american audience. her first novel, 1948's menzogna e sortilegio, won the prestigious viareggio prize, and was later published in the united states as house of liars in 1951. however, morante and others found the english translation quite poorly done, to morante's great disappointment. morante's next novel, l'isola di arturo, appeared in 1957 and won the strega prize. much of the work she had written in the meantime, she had destroyed, although she did publish a novella, the andalusian shawl, and a poem, the adventure. her next work, il mondo salvato dai ragazzini (the world saved by children), a mix of poetry, songs and a play, many addressed to her lover bill morrow, an american, did not appear until 1968. freudian psychology, plato, pier paolo pasolini, and simone weil have all been cited as influences on her writing. morante and moravia separated in 1961, and moran
1912_births 1985_deaths 20th-century_novelists 20th-century_women_writers Italian_Jews Italian_women_novelists Italian_women_writers Prix_MA(c)dicis_A(c)tranger_winners Strega_Prize_winners Viareggio_Prize_winners Writers_from_Rome