The Modern Novel

Biography

Elsa Morante was born in Rome in 1912 (some websites say she was born in 1918. They are wrong.) She left home after finishing school and earned a precarious living by teaching and writing for newspapers and magazines. In 1936, through the painter Giuseppe Capogrossi, she met the writer Alberto Moravia. They married in 1941, which was also the year her first book was published. At this time, she started to write her first novel but, because of the War, this was interrupted and it was not completed till after the end of the War and published in 1948. With success for both husband and wife, they moved to a better apartment in Rome, which became a hub for intellectuals in the 1950s. After she published her second novel – L’isola di Arturo (Arturo’s Island) – she traveled to the Soviet Union and China and then, in 1959, to the USA, where she met a young painter, Bill Morrow. Morrow died tragically in 1962 and, at around the same time her marriage broke up. Morrow’s death had a profound effect on her and started her thinking about death and the dangers facing humanity. Her third novel – La storia (History) – had a huge critical success. In 1982, she fractured her femur and remained bedridden till she died in 1985 of a heart attack.

Books about Elsa Morante

Lily Tuck: Woman of Rome: A Life of Elsa Morante

Other links

Elsa Morante
Elsa Morante
Elsa Morante (in Italian)
Elsa Morante (in Italian)
Elsa Morante (in Italian)
Elsa Morante (in Italian)
Elsa Morante (1912-1985) (in Italian)
Elsa Morante (1912-1985) (in Italian)
Elsa Morante (1912-1985) (in Italian)
Elsa Morante (photos – in Italian)