Luigi Pirandello was born in 1867 in Girgenti (now Agrigento) in Sicily, Italy. His father was the well-off owner of a sulphur mine who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. However, Luigi Pirandello demonstrated a studious personality from early on and so was provided with a literary schooling. He entered the University of Rome in 1887 but later transferred to Bonn, where he completed his doctorate thesis on his native Sicilian dialect. His first novel "The Outcast" was published in 1893. At the age of 27, his father arranged for him to get married to a young lady he hardly knew. After having given birth to three children, his bride suffered a mental breakdown. She became extremely violent but Pirandello tried his best to soothe her. Throughout those difficult years, he carried on writing and in 1919, when his plays finally began to prove profitable, he was able to send his wife to a private sanitarium. Her illness inspired much of Pirandello's work, with the recurrent themes of madness, illusion and isolation. "Il Fu Mattia Pascal" was written in 1904 and constituted his first big success. Within the next ten years, he had published two other novels and many short stories. From 1916, he also became a prolific playwright, producing as many as nine plays in one year. His first notable critical success came in 1920 with "Come prima, meglio di prima". In 1921, within the space of five weeks, he wrote two masterpieces: "Enrico IV" and "Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore". He carried on writing until his death and most of his later plays were inspired by Marat Abba, with whom he managed to find a more understanding relationship. He was the first Italian author/playwright to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934. Throughout the years of Fascist regime in Italy, he went along with Mussolini. Whether it was a matter of practicality or a true belief is still unsure, but when he died in 1936, he was given - against his will, a State funeral.
