Quasimodo, Salvatore (1901–1968)

Italian poet. His early collections, such as Acque e terre/Waters and Land (1930), established his reputation as an exponent of ‘hermetic’ poetry, spare, complex, and private. Later collections, including Nuove poesie/New Poetry (1942) and Il falso e vero verde/The False and True Green (1956), reflect a growing preoccupation with the political and social problems of his time. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1959.