This collection details the creative output and life story of Italian writer and composer Massimo Bontempelli (1878-1960) through extensive correspondence and photographs (bulk 1920-1960), manuscripts, typescripts, drafts, clippings, and other media, a fair representation of his novels, plays, short stories, essays, lectures, reviews, and musical compositions, as well as documents about his personal relationships. It also contains papers of Giosuè Borsi, and Paola Masino.

Massimo Bontempelli was born in 1878, the son of a railroad engineer whose work obliged the family to move frequently. He attended secondary school in Milan and university in Turin, where he graduated in both philosophy and letters. After teaching elementary school for a number of years and failing to win a position teaching Italian in secondary school, he turned to magazine editing in 1910. During WWI he was a war correspondent, reporting from the front, and then an artillery official (1917-1918).

ca. 65 linear feet (90 boxes)

Contact Library Rights and Reproductions

Open for use by qualified researchers.