1. Alda Merini's work earned the attention and admiration of other Italian writers, such as Giorgio Manganelli, Salvatore Quasimodo, and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
22 Facts About Alda Merini
1. 2.
Alda Giuseppina Angela Merini was born on 21 March 1931 in viale Papiniano 57, Milan in a family of modest means.
3.
Alda Merini's father, Nemo Merini, was an employee working at the insurance company "Vecchia Mutua Grandine ed Eguaglianza il Duomo".
4.
Alda Merini's siblings are featured in her poems, albeit thinly disguised.
5.
From 1950 to 1953 Alda Merini developed a professional connection and close friendship with Salvatore Quasimodo.
6.
Alda Merini dedicated the collection of poems Tu sei Pietro, published by Scheiwiller in 1962, to Pietro De Pascale, the doctor who took care of her child.
7.
Alda Merini's pregnancy was followed by a bout of depression, and she spent a period of time in isolation until she was sent to the mental health clinic Paolo Pini.
8.
Alda Merini divided her time between her home and the clinic until 1972.
9.
Alda Merini had three more daughters, Flavia, Barbara and Simona, who ended up being raised in foster families due to Merini's fragile mental health.
10.
In 1979, Alda Merini started putting together a particularly intense body of work based on her experience at the psychiatric ward.
11.
Maria Corti called the book "a masterpiece", and Alda Merini went on to win the Librex Montale Prize.
12.
In July 1986, after a brief spell in the psychiatric hospital in Taranto, Alda Merini moved back to Milan and initiated a therapy cycle with the doctor Marcella Rizzo, to whom she dedicated more than a poem.
13.
Chimera proved to be a particularly inspirational setting, and it was there that Alda Merini wrote her next two books, Delirio amoroso and Il tormento delle figure.
14.
The prize significantly elevated her status within the Italian literary community, and Alda Merini was rated together with writers such as Giorgio Caproni, Attilio Bertolucci, Mario Luzi, Andrea Zanzotto and Franco Fortini.
15.
On 17 October 2007, Alda Merini received an honorary degree in Theory of Communication and Language at the School of Educational Sciences at the University of Messina, giving a lectio magistralis on the meandering twists and turns of events that constituted her life.
16.
Alda Merini put together a small publication for La Vita Felice publishing house made of old and new poems, a confessional diary, a selection of short stories and an interview entitled Un'anima indocile.
17.
In 1997 Bonaldi drew five illustrations for a collection of poems and epigrams of Alda Merini entitled Salmi della gelosia, published by Ariete.
18.
The film, produced by Angelo Tumminelli for Star Dust International, included portions of Alda Merini's poems read by Mariangela Melato, with cinematography by Giuliano Grittini.
19.
Alda Merini wrote a poem, "Una donna sul palcoscenico," specifically for the purpose of including it in the film:.
20.
Alda Merini died in Milan on 1 November 2009, following a brief illness.
21.
Alda Merini is interred in the Monumental Cemetery of Milan.
22.
Alda Merini was honoured with a street in the Milanese suburb of Rozzano.