orig. Ettore Schmitz
born Dec. 19, 1861, Trieste, Austrian Empire
died Sept. 13, 1928, Motta di Livenza, Italy
Italian writer.
Though family financial difficulties forced him to leave school and become a bank clerk, he read on his own and began to write. A Life (1892), revolutionary in its analytical, introspective treatment of an ineffectual hero, was ignored on publication, as was As a Man Grows Older (1898). He gave up writing until, encouraged by James Joyce (then living in Trieste), he produced his most famous novel, Confessions of Zeno (1923), a brilliant work in the form of a patient's statement for his psychiatrist. He died in an auto accident. Two short-story collections, essays, dramatic works, correspondence with Eugenio Montale , and his unfinished Further Confessions of Zeno (1969) were published after his death. He is regarded as a pioneer of the psychological novel.