The San Francisco call., 1906-10-09
Suprem-
acy Threatened by
Fogazzaro.

ROME, Sept. 16.-Gabriele dAnnun-
zio, not the most placid Of mortals at
any time, must be in state Of down.
right chagrin at present over the way
in which his proud position OF premier
Italian novelist has just been wrested
from him by Antonio Fogszzaro, whose
novel I'll Santo" (The Sain) has made
so great sensation throughout Eu-
rope.
For several years Fogazzaro, 1.-The
Knight Of the Spirit" as his sister nov
elist, Matilde Serao, has called him, has
been seriously threatening Gabrielle
d'Annunzio's supremacy among Italian
writer's of fiction, and If the striking
success of III Santo" is any criterion
D'Annunzio will have to take second
place hereafter, for the great religious
novel by Fogazzaro, which the Vatican
authorities instantly placed on the In
dex," has run through edition after
edition in Italy, and is easily the most
discussed romance of the year in the
other countries OF Europe. In Eng
land, too, III Santo," under the name
THE Saint" has attracted widespread
attention. and by this time IT is prob
ably In the hands of American readers
likewise.
Antonio Fogazzaro is an aristocrat
by birth His father, a large land own
er, went to Turin during the struggle
with Austria, as Piedmont was the CEN
ter for the patriots, and Vicenza
Fogazzaro's birthplace in the Venetian
province, was under the hated foreign
dominion.
LOVE OF MUSIC.
The youth of the poet and novelist
was Influenced by his father toward
literature and study, and by his mother
toward art and music He is now. in
his mature age, passionate lover OF
music, plays feelingly himself, and is
so dependent upon It that he saws to
it he owes much of hts poetical in
spiration and certainly half his delight
in life.
Fogazzaro has had one great grief
In life, the death of his only son at
the age of 20. but even this he has
overcome, and now at the age of 81
lives in his native Vicenza, surround
ed by his daughters and their children
his wife still at his side, and q grour
of old and tried friends to grace his
leisure moments. Poetry he has writ
ten all his life. but he was SO years
old before bringing out his first novel
which began that series of books end
ing with The Saint" which has brought
him worldwide reputation. Two OF
| his best-known poems, Motto di Pas
stone" and Leila" were inspired by a
kind Of spiritual love reused by the
\ picture of a dead girl whom he had
never known or seen In his life The
! likeness in question, a photograph
shows her lying deep among flowers
smiling as though at the sight OF
heaven.
THE TWO LEILAs.
Look" he sad to me once, picking
up black folding leather frame which
he keeps always on his writing desk
containing Leila living and Leila dead
these photographs give me the GER
tainty that, while dying, she behel6
beautiful things which we cannot see
This smile of hers has penetrated my
soul in my doubling hours. Looking
at 1t feel that there Is life for which
\ death is the door"
To the Fogazzaro lover a trip tc
Vicenza and Valsolda Is full of inter.
est, as the scenes of the novelist,
works are all descriptions from life
and the houses and villas where hi.
characters lived and suffered are near.
/ ly all his own property, vivifed anC
rendered dear by his presence there.