Curzio Malaparte

(pseudonym of Curzio Suckert). Born June 9, 1898, in Prato, Tuscany; died July 19, 1957, in Rome. Italian writer and journalist.

In the 1920’s, Malaparte became a fascist, proclaiming fascism the “restorer of European civilization” (the publicistic books Living Europe, 1923, and Barbarian Italy, 1925). After the late 1920’s, notes of criticism and satire directed at fascist ideology appear in his writing. His publicistic book Coup d’etat, the Technique of Revolution (1931, in French), a satire on Hitlerite putschism, was burned in Germany in 1933; in that same year, Malaparte was arrested for antifascist activities abroad, but he later resumed his journalistic work under police surveillance.

World War II had a crucial effect on Malaparte’s views. In his best work, the novel Kaputt (1944), he exposed in a bitingly satirical manner the Nazi “superman” and portrayed the barbarity of the fascists and the courage of Soviet soldiers. In the postwar period, Malaparte gradually aligned himself with the progressive camp of Italian culture. His publicistic diary (In Russia and in China, published 1958) reflects the change in his ideological views. Not long before his death, Malaparte joined the Italian Communist Party.