Italy
Giuseppe Ungaretti
1888–1970 Infantryman and poet, Italian Army, 1915–1919
Born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1888 to parents from near Lucca, Giuseppe Ungaretti moved to Paris in 1912, studied at the Sorbonne and befriended Guillaume Apollinaire. Eager to take part in the war, he was called up in 1915 and served as an infantryman on the Carso front near Monte San Michele. His first collection, Il porto sepolto, written largely at the front, was printed in only 80 copies in 1916. In 1918 he was sent to the French front, in Champagne, and he was discharged in August 1919 with the rank of corporal. He later became a leading figure of Hermetic poetry, held a professorship at the University of Rome from 1942, and died in Milan in June 1970.