AKA Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda

Born: 27-Sep-1871
Birthplace: Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy
Died: 15-Aug-1936
Location of death: Rome, Italy
Cause of death: Cancer - Breast
Remains: Buried, Cimitero Monumentale al Verano, Rome, Italy

Gender: Female
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Author

Nationality: Italy
Executive summary: Novels of Sardinia

Raised in an upper-class family, Grazia Deledda's formal education ended when she was about eleven, but after that she was encouraged by her personal tutor. She sold her first short story when she was 15 years old, and her first novel, Memorie di Fernanda (Recollections of Fernanda), was published when she was 17. Fior di Sardegna (The Flower of Sardinia), published when she was 21, made Deledda famous, and perhaps remarkably, especially in light of her early and lifelong success, she had an unmistakable knack for getting inside the heads of ordinary people. Her recurring themes included the clash between ancient and modern ways, the tragic effects of yielding to temptation, rustic superstitions, and life in her native Sardinia. Perhaps her best novel was Elias Portolú, in which the title character, a Sardinian cattle rustler, returns from a prison stint but falls in love with his brother's fiancé, fathering her child, and eventually joins the priesthood to escape his guilt.

She married Palmiro Madesani, a mid-level bureaucrat at the Italian Ministry of Finance, and he became her business manager. Madesani was mercilessly mocked in playwright Luigi Pirandello's Her Husband, a novel clearly inspired by Deledda's career and marriage. A 1916 silent adaptation of Deledda's Cenere (Ashes) featured legendary Italian stage star (broken link, Eleanora Duse), in her only film performance. D. H. Lawrence wrote the preface for the English translation of her 1920 novel La Madre (The Mother), and in 1926 Deledda was honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature. After her death, she was buried at the foot of a Sardinian hillside near her home, and above her grave admirers built a chapel inspired by her final novel, The Church of Solitude.

Father: Giovanni Deledda (Mayor of Nuoro, d. 1892)
Mother: Francesca Cambosu Deledda
Brother: Santus Deledda (b. 1864)
Sister: Vincenza Deledda (b. 1868)
Brother: Andrea Deledda
Boyfriend: Stanis Manca (journalist, dated early 1890s)
Boyfriend: Giovanni Andrea Pirodda (school teacher, dated mid-1890s)
Boyfriend: Giuseppe De Nava (school teacher, dated late 1890s)
Husband: Palmiro Madesani (her manager, b. 1865, dated 1899-1900, m. 1900, d. 1946, two sons)
Son: Sardus Madesani (b. 1901, d. 1938)
Son: Franz Madesani (chemist, b. 1904)

    Nobel Prize for Literature 1926

Author of books:
Memorie di Fernanda (Recollections of Fernanda) (1888)
Sangue Sardo (Sardinian Blood) (1888, short stories)
Stella d'Oriente (Star of the East) (1890)
Nell'azzurro (1890, short stories)
Amore Regale (Regal Love) (1891)
Fior di Sardegna (The Flower of Sardinia) (1892)
Amori Fatali (Fatal Loves) (1892)
Anime Oneste, Romanzo Famigliare (Honest Souls) (1895)
Tradizioni Popolari di Nuoro in Sardegna (Popular traditions of Nuoro in Sardinia) (1895, non-fiction)
La Via del Male (The Evil Way) (1896)
La Giustizia (The Justice) (1899)
Le Tentazioni (The Temptations) (1899)
Il Vecchio Della Montagna (The Old Man of the Mountain) (1900)
Naufraghi in Porto; a/k/a Dopo il Divorzio (After the Divorce) (1902)
Elias Portolú (1903)
Odio Vince(HateWins) (1904)
Cenere (Ashes) (1904)
Nostalgie (Nostalgia) (1905)
I Giuochi della Vita (The Gambles of Life) (1905, short stories)
L'Ombra del Passato (Shadow of the Past) (1907)
L'Edera (The Ivy) (1908)
Il Nostro Padrone (Our Master) (1910)
Sino al Confine (Up to the Limit) (1910)
Nel Deserto (In the Desert) (1911)
Colombi e Sparvieri (Doves and Falcons) (1912)
L'Edera (The Ivy) (1912, play, based on Deledda's novel, with co-author Camillo Antona-Traversi)
Canne al Vento (Reeds in the Wind) (1913)
Le Colpe Altrui (The Fault of Others)1914
Marianna Sirca (1915)
Il Fanciullo Nascosto (The Hidden Boy) (1915, short stories)
L'Incendio Nell'Oliveto (The Fire in the Olive Grove) (1918)
La Madre (The Mother) (1920)
Il Segreto Dell'uomo Solitario (The Secret of the Solitary Man) (1921)
Il Dio dei Viventi (The God of the Living) (1922)
La Danza Della Collana (The Dance of the Necklace) (1924)
A Sinistra (To the Left) (1924)
La Fuga in Egitto (The Flight into Egypt) (1925)
Annalena Bilsini (1927)
La Casa del Poeta (The Poet's House) (1930, short stories)
Il Paese del Vento (Land of the Wind) (1931)
Sole d'Estate (Summer Sun) (1933, short stories)
L'Argine (The Barrier) (1934)
La Chiesa della Solitudine (The Church of Solitude), a/k/a Cosima (1937, published posthumously)
Il cedro di Libano (The Cedar of Lebanon) (1939, short stories; published posthumously)

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