Background
Giovannitti was born on January 7, 1884, in Ripabottoni, Italy. He was the son of Rosanna and Massimo Giovannitti, a prosperous and liberal-minded physician.
(Excerpt from Come Era Nel Principio (Tenebre Rosse): Dram...)
Excerpt from Come Era Nel Principio (Tenebre Rosse): Dramma in 3 Atti HO paura che commetteranno qualche cosa di inutile e di pazzesco. Dopo tutto perchè dovreb bero fare del male a dei vecchi e delle donne iner mi? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Poetry. A radical socialist, pacifist, and poet, Arturo G...)
Poetry. A radical socialist, pacifist, and poet, Arturo Giovannitti made prominent, but largely forgotten, contributions to American arts and letters during the first part of the twentieth century. Giovannitti's extremely long and loose Whitmanesque lines, as well as his eulogy "The Death of Flavio Venanzi," "The Bankrupt's Suicide" and "Scientist," provide a key piece in understanding the development of the prose poem in the United States. Giovannitti's political mission shaped his poetic vision and expression. As orator, agitator, organizer, poet, playwright, essayist, journalist, doubter and believer, he sought to better the plight of the worker.This volume comprises the collected poems that he wrote in English.
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Political activist union leader poet
Giovannitti was born on January 7, 1884, in Ripabottoni, Italy. He was the son of Rosanna and Massimo Giovannitti, a prosperous and liberal-minded physician.
Giovannitti received an excellent education for the time, including Gymnasium and some college work, as was commensurate with his family's position. He briefly studied theology at McGill University in Montreal, and then studied at Columbia University.
Compassionate and idealistic, Giovannitti turned away from the secure and economically successful life that he was assured in Italy. At the age of seventeen he immigrated to the United States, seeking the freedom and equality that he felt did not exist in Italy. He worked at various manual and clerical jobs throughout the East Coast. He also attended several seminaries. Giovannitti, however, eventually abandoned his religious calling and became more interested in socialist causes. In 1906 he became a member of the Italian Socialist Federation and thereafter devoted his efforts to organizational activities and to writing for radical newspapers and magazines. In 1911 he became editor of the syndicalist-controlled paper Il Proletario. The following year the textile strike at Lawrence, Massachussets, brought Giovannitti to the attention of the nation. A cut in wages at the city's textile mills precipitated the strike in January 1912. Consisting largely of unskilled immigrants, the work force quickly came under the control of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Led by Giovannitti and Joseph J. Ettor, a member of the IWW executive board, many Italian workers participated in the strike. During a fight between police and strikers on January 29, Anna Lo Pezzi, a young striker, was shot and killed. Giovannitti and Ettor were arrested and in September stood trial in Salem, Massachussets, on the charge of being accessories to murder by inciting to riot. After nearly two months of testimony, they were acquitted. During his long stay in prison before and during the trial, Giovannitti wrote his most powerful and acclaimed poems, which were published as Arrows in the Gale (1914). "The Walker" was inspired by the continual pacing of a fellow prisoner in a cell directly above his own. Written in English in an irregular unrhymed verse, it became his best-known work. Although rated highly by contemporaries, Giovannitti's poetry is now largely forgotten or ignored - an undeserved fate, for many of the writings are moving social documents. Because he disliked William Dudley Haywood's leadership of the IWW, Giovannitti left the organization in 1916. During the 1920's and 1930's he was a popular speaker at labor rallies, where he addressed both Italian and English speaking crowds with what the New York Times called "flowery fluency. " He also wrote (in Italian, English, and French) a profusion of poems, plays, short stories, and articles dealing with labor and social questions. A collection of his Italian poems, Quando Canta L. Gallo (When the Cock Crows), appeared in 1957. He was editing his English poems for publication at the time of his death; they were published posthumously as The Collected Poems of Arturo Giovannitti (1962). Giovannitti died in the Bronx, New York. on December 31, 1959. His funeral service was held in the auditorium of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America headquarters in New York City.
(Excerpt from Come Era Nel Principio (Tenebre Rosse): Dram...)
(Poetry. A radical socialist, pacifist, and poet, Arturo G...)
Reared as a Catholic, Giovannitti became interested in Protestantism in the United States.
Giovannitti organized the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). He then became secretary of the Italian Chamber of Labor and then the Italian Labor Education Bureau, a post he held until 1940. In 1923 Giovannitti founded the Anti-Fascist Alliance of North America.
In 1912 Giovannitti met Carrie Zaikaner, a Russian Jew. They lived together until 1939, and had two children.