Bontempelli, Massimo (1878–1960)

Italian writer. From classical beginnings, he became a Futurist and humorist, and described his art as ‘magic realism’. He wrote several novels, numerous volumes of verse, plays, and various other works, and was intensely active as a journalist and contributor to literary reviews.

In 1926 he founded the review 900, in which he vigorously preached reaction against academic refined art and the sentimentality found in late-19th-century writing, in favour of a modern popular literature. His book La donna dei miei sogni (1925) is composed of short stories relating imaginary adventures in an ultramodern world, but with infinite care for realism in their details. His novels include La vita intensa (1920), Gente nel tempo (1937), and Giro del sole (1940).

Plays include La guardia alla luna (1916), Minnie la candida (1928), Bassano padre geloso (1934), Cenerentola (1942), and L'amante fedele (1953).