Marinetti, (Emilio) Filippo Tommaso (1876–1944)

Italian author. In 1909 he published Manifesto del Futurismo, the first manifesto of Futurism, exhorting the youth of Italy to break with tradition in art, poetry, and the novel and face the challenges of a new machine age. He illustrated his theories in Mafarka le futuriste: Roman africaine/Mafarka the Futurist: African Novel (1909). His best-known work is the Manifesto technico della letteratura futuristica/Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature (1912; translated 1971). He also wrote plays, a volume on theatrical practice (1916), and a volume of poems Guerra sola igiene del mondo/War the Only Hygiene of the World (1915).

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Marinetti left for Paris 1893 and arrived in Italy to study law at Pavia 1898. He was launched on a literary career after winning a prize with his poem ‘Les Vieux Marins’. In 1905 he founded the literary review Poesia with Sem Benelli and Vitaliano Ponti. Four years later, he published the Manifesto del Futurismo in the Parisian newspaper Le Figaro, and later in Poesia. The second manifesto, Uccidiamo il chiaro di luna, appeared two months after the first, in April 1909.