born Sept. 9, 1908, Santo Stefano Belbo, Italy
died Aug. 27, 1950, Turin
Italian poet, critic, novelist, and translator.
Pavese founded, and was long an editor with, the publishing house of Einaudi. Denied a creative outlet by fascist control of literature, he did translations in the 1930s and '40s that introduced many modern U.S. and English writers to Italy. Much of his own work appeared between the end of World War II and his death by suicide at age 41; some was published posthumously. His best works include Dialogues with Leucò (1947), poetic conversations on the human condition; the novel The Moon and the Bonfire (1950); and the journal This Business of Living (1952).