Beppe Fenoglio
(1922-1963)
Partisan Langa Writer

Beppe (Giuseppe) Fenoglio was born in Alba (CN) on 1^st March 1922, of Amilcare and Margherita Faccenda. His mother (born in Canale) is an active, resourceful, and religious woman. She will always have an explicit and direct (with confronts and contrasts) relationship with her son. His father (born in Monforte), who is laically-oriented and socialist, will have an affective link on Beppe; he will have great impact on his future literary production. Amilcare, who moved to Alba from the hill to seek fortune, works in a butcher’s shop initially; a few years later (1928) he will manage the shop on his own (at the ground floor of a building in Piazza Rossetti I). The entire family will move to the first floor of the same building, and they will live there until 1957. Here (a few steps from the cathedral and the marketplace) Beppe will write a good part of his works. His family economical conditions are discrete, so that they can buy a Fiat 509 car, which they use for visiting Langhe. The small Beppe (one year older than his brother Walter and eleven years older than his sister Marisa) finishes the “Michele Coppino” elementary school in four years. He is silent and reflexive. He shows his interest in reading: he is signed by his mother for the “Giuseppe Govone” gymnasium in Alba (1933). These are very significant years for the future writer as far as personal and cultural experiences are concerned. He starts studying English in the second year of gymnasium. This spark will enlighten in him a never-extinct passion for the Anglo-Saxon world (considered as a universe of ideals and positive certitudes, and of sensibility and refinement. These qualities were compared to the squalor and mediocrity of the fascist culture). He devotes himself to an assiduous reading of books (borrowed from the school library) and to the translation of his beloved writers: he will become so familiar with the English language that he will generate his thoughts in the Anglo-Saxon idiom; then, he will translate them into Italian on the paper. His summer vacations (at some paternal relatives’house) in San Benedetto Belbo (1933-34) and Murazzano (1935-37) will be very influent on his future literary production. These places and people will inspire the writer several rural tales and a short novel, “La malora [The ruin]” (a fresco of the Alta Langa San Benedetto-nearby landscape harshness; a place of crude and rude human happenings). He meets exceptional teachers at the “Fenoglio” classical lyceum: in his third year don Natale Bussi (the seminary rector) as philosophy teacher; in his fifth year Leonardo Cocito as Italian teacher and Pietro Chiodi (scholar of Kierkegaard and Heidegger) as history and philosophy teacher (Cocito was considered a Communist partisan and hanged by the Germans 7^th September 1944). The young Beppe was not very good-looking but he was very athletic and slender. He loved any kind of sports: basketball, football, tennis, and elastic ball (often played at the “Mermet” spheristerion). His culture together with his romantic vein fascinated his girl-peers: from one of these he will create the character of Fulvia (a capricious and intriguing adolescent who longed for a uncommon life – at the center of the protagonist’s “private question” in his homonymous novel). Fenoglio signs for the Faculty of Humanities in Turin (1940). He frequents scarcely-interested a course. He takes eight exams in two years, with no brilliant results. He is called to arms in January 1943: he frequents the course for Junior Officers first in Ceva (“Moana” in his work “Primavera di bellezza [Spring of beauty]”) then in Pietralata (nearby Rome). After Badoglio’s 8^th September armistice, he adventurously goes back home: he participates with his brother Walter to the carabinieri’s barracks assault in December. This in order to avoid recruitment for the renitent children’s fathers. Subsequently his father Amilcare is first imprisoned and then released. Beppe joins the Garibaldi Brigade detachment (led by lieutenant Rosi “the Blonde” and operating in the area between Murazzano and Monbarcaro). The unfortunate battle of Carrù (and the following massive roundup) forces Fenoglio to go back to his family’s. Here he finds his brother (deserter after first showing up at Mondovì district, and then being transferred to Alessandria). After a tip-off the entire family was arrested: the women are released soon; the men are rescued after an exchange of prisoners and thank to the mediation of the Bishop of Alba (Grassi). Beppe and Walter go up the hill again and join Enrico “Mauri” Martini and Piero “The Northern Chief” Balbo’s Autonomous Military Formations (I and II Langhe Divisions). They are part of the Mango presidium, which is ruled by Piero Ghiacci (“Cosmo” in his work “Appunti partigiani 1944-1945 [Partisan notes 1944-1945]”, “Pierre” in his book “Il partigiano Johnny [The partisan Johnny]”). The future writer participates (on 10^th October 1994) to the liberation of Alba. On 2^nd November the city is conquered by the fascists again. Two weeks later (18^th November) the terrible three-days roundup starts in Alba, Neive, and Mango. The seat of the Brigade Command in Castino undergoes cannonades. The partisan forces disperse (following General Alexander’s proclaim) and fix an appointment (31^st January 1945): persistently, Fenoglio does not leave the hills and spend a terrible and lonely winter in Cascina della Langa. The battle of Valdivilla in February marks the last terrible victory for the collapsing fascist forces: Giovanni Balbo (Pinin), North’s father, dies in the struggle. Dario Scaglione (Tarzan) and Settimo Burello (Set) are captured and executed. In the next months Fenoglio operates as liaison officer with the allied missions in Monferrato, Vercellese and Lomellina. On 19^th April he participates to the battle of Montemagno. Reintegration into civil life is not easy for him when the war is over; Fenoglio renounces to continue his studies, although the proud opposition of his mother (“they will bring me the degree at home, and that will be my first book to be published”). In 1945-46 he devotes himself to the draft of his work “Appunti Partigiani 1944-1945”. He is probably inspired by some real notes taken during the partisan struggle. The narrative material (first person-narrated  and featuring a plan and non-refined language) will be largely drawn on and richly re-elaborated in most of his next works concerning partisans. In May 1947 Fenoglio is hired (due to his knowledge of the English and French language) for a wine firm. During the day he works in the office; at night he devotes himself to his writing activity in his room on Piazza Rossetti I: the typewriter ticking and “the eternal cigarette” smoke are the only tangible signs of his presence in the house. His first six tales about the civil war are ready in the middle of 1949: “I ventitrè giorni della città di Alba [The city of Alba twenty-three days], “L’andata [The going], “Il trucco [The trick]”, “Nella valle di San Benedetto [In San Benedetto’s valley]”, “Gli inizi del partigiano Raul [The partisan Raul and his beginnings]”, “Un altro muro [Another wall]”. Following an agreement with the Bompiani publishing company, Fenoglio’s “Il trucco” is published on the editorial bulletin “Pesci rossi [Goldfish]”. The publications (which should have covered the entire short narrations arch) stops early. The writer presents the tales (and the short novel “La paga del sabato [Saturday’s pay]” ) to the Einaudi publishing company in 1950. Through Einaudi Fenoglio will meet the major writer of those years: Italo Calvino (who will become a sincere friend), Elio Vittorini (he will have only a formal and professional relation with him), Natalia Ginzburg and Cesare Pavese (who apparently met Fenoglio at the gardens in front of the station, in August 1950 in Alba, just before his tragic end). “La paga del sabato” (which was appreciated but not praised by Calvino) was substantially rejected by Vittorini (he will not give Fenoglio his assent even after a revision of the work). The tales receive better appreciations instead. Following alternating situations and prolonged negotiations, Fenoglio abandons the short novel (taking two new tales out of it: “Ettore va al lavoro [Ettore goes to work]” and “Nove lune [Nine moons]”. Other titles are added: “Pioggia [Rain]” and “La sposa [The bride]” (probably his first work concerning the Langhe area), “L’acqua verde [The green water]”, “Quell’antica ragazza [That old-fashoned girl]”, “L’odore della morte [The death’s smell]”. “Nella valle di San Benedetto” (stylistically dishomogenous from the other tales) is erased following an express request made by Fenoglio. “I racconti della guerra civile” (“Racconti barbari [Barbarian tales]” later) is published only in June 1952 with the title (not accepted happily by the writer) of “I ventitrè giorni della città di Alba”. Fenoglio devotes himself to the drafting of a novel concerning the rural world (“La malora”) in the second half of 1951 (while the complex editorial situation about his tales was still going on). He gives an efficient representation of a whole world and society; he utilizes a experimental and strongly expressive language, which maintains the dialect richness and immediateness. This linguistic choice will raise against him harsh critics; when the novel is published by Einaudi in August 1954, Vittorini writes (on the jacket flap) a polemical note; he warns Fenoglio on the danger of going back to the 19^th century provincial naturalism. Critics upset Fenoglio. He comes to the point of doubting about his skills as a writer (considering also the editorial situation of “La paga del sabato”). Fenoglio writes the novel “La sposa bambina [The young bride]” (included later in the posthumous collection “Un giorno di fuoco [A day of fire]”, title taken from the homonymous tale published on the magazine “Paragone [Comparison]” in October 1955) during a pause in the composition of “La malora” (probably due to a moment of discouragement). Shortly later he composes “La novella dell’apprendista esattore [The tax collector apprentice novel]” (published in 1960, and also in the 1963 posthumous collection). “Il paese [The village]” (there are only four chapters remained, and one coincides with the tale “Il podestà [idem]”) belongs to these years too. More tales enrich the Langhe thread: “L’esattore [The tax collector]”, “L’affare dell’anima [The soul affair]”, “Il gorgo [The whirlpool]”. In the meanwhile, Fenoglio keeps devoting to translating from English; this was an activity which he continued delightfully; he publishes the Italiano version of “La ballata del vecchio marinaio [The ballad of the old sailor]” by Coleridge in 1955. His constant interest in translations (and in the European literature in general) contrasts with the picture of an isolated, provincial, naïf, and coarse writer, given of him by Vittorini (during the publication of “I ventitrè giorni…” and “La malora”). In the beginning of 1956 Fenoglio suggested Calvino to collect some tales about Langhe in a book. However, the author himself (although the publisher solicitations) rejected this project and devoted himself to the drafting of a “thick book” about the partisans (dealing with the period between 1940 and 1945). Fenoglio presents his book to the publisher Livio Garzanti (after embarrassingly interrupting the collaboration with Einaudi). The Milanese publisher agrees on publishing the text. However, he asks Fenoglio for a revision. While revising it, Fenoglio decides to divide it in two parts: the first would have told the events until Autumn 1943; the other would have continued the narration until the victory in Spring 1945. After sending the publisher the first volume, Fenoglio changes his mind again: instead of sending him the second part of the story, he presents a new editing of the novel. In this new version, all the events are limited to a few months around September 1943; the protagonist of the story dies just before the entering of the first partisan formations. “Primavera di bellezza” is published in April 1959 by Garzanti: this is a work which has been strongly revised, if compared with the initial project; it is a work which does not justifie the effort put into it by the writer; the quick end of the novel could be explained by considering the author’s anxiety about “freeing the resistance field” and “creating the partisan Milton character, who was a different and harder face than the sentimental and snob Johnny” (letter for Garzanti, 10^th March 1959). However, a year later the novel about the partisan Milton is not ready yet (although solicited by Garzanti). Fenoglio decides to abandon completely the twenty-two chapters already written (“Frammenti di romanzo [Fragments of a novel]”, published in 1963, after his death), and to devote himself to the composing of a new story (featuring Milton), where the historical re-evocation is put aside to give space to personal and more novel-style events. Although Fenoglio showed a great enthusiasm for it, this work is not going to be finished: after three incomplete drafts, the author stops working on the book (posthumous published as “Una questione privata [A private question]”) and dedicates himself to a collection of tales about Langhe (to be published by Einaudi). He marries Luciana Bombardi (a woman from Alba met just after the war) on March 1960. Their daughter Margherita is born on January 1962. Fenoglio will dedicate two of his works to her: “La favola del nonno [My grandfather’s fairy tale]” and “Il bambino che rubò uno scudo [The boy who stole a scudo]”. Fenoglio sends Einaudi his work “Racconti del parentado [Kinsfolk’s tales]”: “Un giorno di fuoco”, “La sposa bambina”, “Ma il mio amore è Paco [But my love is Paco]”, “Superino”, “Pioggia e la sposa”, “La novella dell’apprendista esattore”. The publication is blocked by Garzanti at the beginning of 1962. In fact, Fenoglio was still bounded to this publisher (until 1964) by a clause in the contract for “Primavera di bellezza”. The writer keeps devoting himself to the enlargement of “Racconti del parentado”; he wants to narrate the events featuring his ancestors during the First World War. The writer’s efforts produce several narrative materials (later included in the posthumous volume “Un Fenoglio alla prima guerra mondiale [A Fenoglio in the First World War]”), which were destined to remain unfinished (also due to health problems). “Ma il mio amore è Paco” is published on the magazine “Paragone [Comparison]” on July 1962. Thank to it, Fenoglio wins the Alpi Apuane prize (taken personally). The first symptoms of his illness force him to leave the Versilia area. At home, the doctor diagnosed him a form of tuberculosis. To cure it, he spends September and October in Bossolasco (Alta Langa). At the “Bellavista” hotel he dedicates himself to reading, writing, conversations with friends. Unfortunately, the disease is worse than it was initially thought. He is first hospitalized in Bra, then in Turin (Molinette), where the doctor diagnoses him cancer. He lives his last horrible days stroken by violent choking crisis, and surrounded by his relatives and his dearest friends. Tracheotomized, he writes his will and his love for his daughter Margherita on some notepapers. He dies the night of 18^th February 1963. He was not forty-one years old yet. According to his will, the funeral (Calvino participated too) is simple and sober.