Italy
Gabriele D'Annunzio
1863–1938 Poet, aviator and ruler of Fiume
D'Annunzio was Italy's most famous poet and an early champion of Italian entry into the war, in which he lost an eye in a flying accident and flew a celebrated raid over Vienna in 1918. In October 1918 he coined the phrase "mutilated victory," and in September 1919 he led some 2,500 men to seize Fiume. For 15 months he ruled the city as a kind of theatrical state with its own constitution, black-shirted legionaries, balcony oratory and the cult of the leader. After his expulsion by Italian forces in December 1920, he retired to a villa on Lake Garda. He was an admirer of Mussolini, who had borrowed much of his style, but was kept at a distance by him. He died in 1938.