Biography
Luigi Ugolini, Italian writer, poet and journalist, debuted to the Italian general public with novels. Between literature for mainstream and young adults, didactic works, technical manuals, textbooks, and scientific discourses, more than 150 of his works were published. He was also an expert ornithologist, gastronomer, and a prolific painter.
Among Ugolini's many notable novels, "The Nest of Falasco," (Il Nido di Falasco) published in 1932 by Vallecchi, was adapted to film. "Musoduro" (Vallecchi 1934), also adapted to film, enjoyed many editions before going out of print in 1991. "The Story of My Land" (Paravia 1954) was ordained required reading for middle schools in Italy. "Voices of the Sea and the Earth" (SEI 1970) was also inducted required reading for Italian middle schools. Ugolini's novel "La Zolla" (Vallecchi 1934) won the Biella Award, and was translated into German. In "Ex Corde," a poetic collection with themes of land, eternal war, and humanity, Ugolini revealed himself a poet.
Ugolini dedicated himself to young adult literature, creating the famous series of "Novelized Biography" for the publishing houses Paravia, SEI, and Minerva Italica, in which he wove history and facts of great men such as Galileo Galilei, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Dante Aligieri, into adventurous reading. He also contributed to leading Italian newspapers such as "La Nazione," "Il Messaggero."
The literary work of Luigi Ugolini has been translated into German, Romanian, Czechoslovakia, Japanese, Hungarian, Portuguese, Serb-Croatian, and in all Spanish-speaking countries with the title "Living Florence" (Firenze Viva). Austria's Ministry of Education conferred the highest acknowledgment for authors and educators on him. The noted Austian publication "Jugendbuch Autoren aus allen Welt," edited by Lucia Binder for Italy, includes the name of Ugolini. Ugolini was the recipient of many prizes and acknowledgments.
On April 27, 1940, Ugolini was arrested in Florence, Italy by the Fascist police for writing anti-Nazi and anti-Fascist propaganda, where he expressed protest and premonitions of the misfortune of entering into war and alliance with Hitler. He was tried and condemned by the Special Court to two years of confinement.
Born in Florence, Italy, Luigi Ugolini was an only son and the grandson of a medic whose ancestry traces to the 1600s from the nearby province of Arezzo. The writer's marriage to Lina Vaselli, his first and only love, lasted for over sixty years. They had seven children, four sons and three daughters.
In 1983, Ugolini's "Tales of Hunting, Fishing, Life," (Olimpia di Vallecchi publishers) posthumously earned Italy's Bancerello Sport prize. Olimpia issued a new edition of this title in 2005.
On December 11, 1991, the Toponomastica Commission convened and voted to place a commemorative marble plaque on Luigi Ugolini's home in Florence. In a formal ceremony, the Commune of Florence conducted the unveiling of the epigraph making the building a monument: "Here for many years, the Florentine writer and poet Luigi Ugolini gave voice to the beauty and humanity of his land and his people."
