Luigi Pirandello Biography

Luigi Pirandello was as Italian writer and dramatist who won the 1934 Nobel Prize for Literature "for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art". A prolific writer, he wrote several hundreds of short stories, about 40 plays, and many novels. As a dramatist he is credited to have introduced the concept of “theatre within the theatre” in the play ‘Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore’ which earned him much acclaim as an innovator in modern drama. Born as the son of a sulfur merchant, it was expected that he would enter the same business on growing up. However, life had other plans for the creative Luigi who loved writing from a young age. He had always been fascinated by the art of story-telling and voraciously read the works of 19th-century Italian poets such as Giosuè Carducci and Arturo Graf. He eventually embarked on a writing career with the support of his friends and began publishing his works by the 1890s. However, an unexpected family crisis shattered his personal and professional life and he was forced to refocus his career. Already an established writer of short stories at this time, he went on to focus more on playwriting and emerged as one of the most innovative dramatists of the early 20th century.