Grazia Deledda

GRAZIA DELEDDA was born at Nuoro in Sardinia in 1871. Though her middle class family were not especially supportive of her desire to write, she determinedly pursued her vocation. Her first book, a collection of short stories, was published in 1890. Success developed slowly; she reached greater popularity in 1903 and 1904 with Elias Portolu and Cenere (the film of which contained Eleonora Duse’s only cinematic role). She was the second woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1926. She died of breast cancer in Rome in 1936, at the age of 64.