Ada Negri

Vocation

Notable

Italian poet. She was born in Lodi into an artisan family to Giuseppe Negri, and his wife Vittoria Cornalba, and became a village school-teacher. Her first book of poems, Tempeste (1891), tells the helpless tragedy of the forsaken poor, in words of vehement beauty. Her second volume of lyrics, Fatalità, confirmed her reputation as a poet, and led to her appointment to the normal school at Milan; but her later verse, while striking in its sincerity, has been thought to suffer from a tendency to repetition and consequent mannerism. She became the first woman member of the Italian Academy in 1940. That achievement, however, also stained her later reputation since members of the Academy had to swear loyalty to the Fascist regime and were rewarded by it with various material benefits. She died 11 Januar 1945, Milan. Link to Wikipedia biography