Montale, Eugenio (1896–1981)

Italian poet and writer. His pessimistic poetry expresses a personal, psychological drama, a sense of anguish at the immutability of destiny. For Montale, life is a vain search for salvation, yet in this search the poet never relents. His work includes Ossi di seppia/Cuttlefish Bones (1925), Le Occasioni/Occasions (1939), and (showing a greater warmth and approachability) La bufera e altro/The Storm and Other Poems (1956). He was also an important critic and translator. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975.

Born in Genoa, he was a cavalry officer during World War I, director of Gabinetto Viesseux, Florence, 1929–38, and from 1947 worked on the editorial staff of the Corriere della Sera newspaper.