30 Facts About Vittorio Gorresio

Vittorio Gorresio was an Italian Journalist-commentator and essayist.

Vittorio Gorresio was a political reporter who wanted to offer readers something more than mere information, albeit on a basis that was both timely and truthful, employing facts for which he was happy to serve as guarantor.

Vittorio Gorresio always took great care to provide an instantly "historical" portrayal of matters about which he wrote.

The third of his parents' four children, Vittorio Gorresio spent the first ten years of his life growing up in Cuneo, a mid-sized and administratively important town in the west of Piedmont.

Vittorio Gorresio would look back on those years as happy ones.

The family then returned to Rome where in 1928 Vittorio Gorresio successfully concluded his school career.

Vittorio Gorresio's brothers had by this time decided to follow their father into the army, but Vittorio had other ideas, so he enrolled at university as a law student.

Vittorio Gorresio appears to have been planning to become a diplomat, but this was financially impossible, so he fell back on journalism.

Vittorio Gorresio began by sending articles to a wide range of newspapers and succeeded in having some of his work published.

Vittorio Gorresio used "L'Eco del mondo e Storia" to publish the initial results of his research into Gioacchino Murat of Naples.

Subject to various interruptions, and without ever reaching a final set of conclusions or producing a substantive biography, Vittorio Gorresio would continue to research Marat practically for the rest of his life.

Vittorio Gorresio published two little books: "Questa Francia" was an impressionistic compilation based on a visit lasting around twenty days.

In 1936 Vittorio Gorresio was appointed a contributing editor to Il Messaggero, a mass-circulation daily newspaper published in Rome.

The appointment gave Vittorio Gorresio his first experience as a member of the editorial board of a mass-circulation daily newspaper: it was an important and formative period for him on several different levels.

Vittorio Gorresio had successfully re-invigorated Messaggero, recruiting a team of top journalists, starting with Missiroli.

Vittorio Gorresio's mission was to report on what was being presented in Rome as the Italian conquest of the region.

Vittorio Gorresio's reports were characteristically lucid and effortlessly authoritative, even if they contained judgements which many in Rome might have found contentious.

In September 1939, the French government declared war on Germany and Vittorio Gorresio was sent to report from Paris.

Vittorio Gorresio now launched himself on a "Cursus honorum" for which he was amply qualified.

Vittorio Gorresio was never a communist, but nor could he ever be taken for an Italian "Christian Democrat".

Vittorio Gorresio became a regular contributor to each of them.

Vittorio Gorresio joined Pannunzio's recently launched daily newspaper Risorgimento Liberale in 1945, initially as a news reporter and later as parliamentary editor.

Vittorio Gorresio stayed rather longer with Benedetti's L'Europeo, writing for the magazine regularly between 1945 and 1954.

Vittorio Gorresio's contributions tended to deal with historical topics, with an evident preference for controversial themes.

Vittorio Gorresio retained that post till 1976 when cancer of the upper jaw forced him into a partial retirement, which he used in part to write a series of memorable articles concerned with the terrifying illness.

Vittorio Gorresio continued to write for La Stampa almost till he died.

Vittorio Gorresio set high standards for himself with respect to professional ethics and sometimes attracted hostility by trying to inflict similarly high standards on fellow journalists.

Vittorio Gorresio returned to the theme of restrictive press control at the 1958 Amici del Mondo convention.

Vittorio Gorresio used La Stampa to take a stand in the wake of the Montesi case, deploring the excesses displayed by journalists keen to "secure a scoop".

Vittorio Gorresio died of cancer at his home in central Rome.