Biography The very pseudonym of Pitigrilli sums up an essential aspect of this paradoxical and scintillating writer who was, by his real name, Dino Segrè (1893 - 1975). He refused to be an I-writer. For him, in fact, one does not write, one is written. To write is to be the spokesperson for the readers. Bias which was to earn him some strong enmities in Italian literary circles, and all the more so since Pitigrilli did not hide his disdain for professional thinkers. We can't help mentioning another famous pseudonym, that of his contemporary Kurt Sickert, better known as Malaparte. Through his mother, Pitigrilli was the first cousin of Carlo Levi, author of the famous masterpiece Christ Stopped at Eboli. Literature flowed through his veins. Did he feel isolated from the Italian public by his Jewishness? No one will say for him. Still, he converted to Catholicism. From 1920, Pitigrilli surged, it is the only word, on its public. In that year alone, he published two books at the same time, Mammiferi di lusso (Sonzogno, Milan) and La cintura du castità (id). The following year, two more books: Cocaina and Oltraggio al pudore (id). The public gives him a warm welcome, the critics get angry: we measure it by his growing silence. Because it is well known that the augurs of good taste do not suffer that we triumph without their intermediary. In 1923 appeared La vergine a diciotto carati (id) and in 1929, l'Esperimento di Pott (id), which appeared two years later in translation. French, under the title The Man Who Seeks Love (Albin Michel). The success is undeniable. In 1931: I vegetariani dell'amore (Sonzogno) and in 1936, one of his greatest successes, Dolicocefala bionda (id). We keep reprinting it. A fatal rumor wants that Mussolini appreciates it. Truly an unforgivable crime. It is probable, in fact, that the socialist who was Mussolini appreciated the social criticism which runs like a thread through the work of Pitigrilli. Perhaps the dictator and the writer did indeed meet. But Pitigrilli also met Picasso after the war. Nevertheless, the rumor will turn into gossip. Pitigrilli passes for "the eye of Mussolini" in Paris. There is no doubt that the Duce was impatient to know the mood of the Parisian literary cafés… In short. Here is one more argument to anathematize Pitigrilli. Fascist Pitigrilli? But how is it then that he hasn't published anything on the Fascio? Nothing published during the war years? In fact, he did not resume his publications until 1948, with the same publisher, to whom he remained faithful all his life, Sonzogno, and this time with seven titles at once, Mosè and Il Cavalier Levi, Il farmacista a cavallo , Saturno, La piscina di Siloe, La meravigliosa avventura, Lezioni d'amore, and Apollinaria. Seven titles! This indicates much more a retention of publication that will have lasted twelve years. And it goes on: 1949, Pitigrilli parla di Pitigrilli; 1952, Il sesso degli angeli; 1953, Dizionario antiballistico and La moglie di Putifarro; 1954, Gusto per il mistero and Come quando fuori piove; 1955, La donna degli scimpanzé and The Susanna “affair”; 1956, L'amore ha i giorni contati; 1957, I figli deformano il belly and Il pollo non si mangia con le mani; 1958, Amore con la O maiuscola; 1962, Il sacrosanto diritto di fregarsene; 1963, three titles at once once again L'ombelico di Adamo, I publicani e le meretrici and Amore a prezzo fesso; 1964, Odor di femmina and I Kukukuku; 1965, Il dito nel ventilatore; 1967, La donna di 30, 40, 50, 60 anni and La bella et i curculionidi; 1968, Queste, codeste and what; 1970, Amori Express; 1971, Sette delitti; 1974, Nostra Signora di Miss Tiff. Pitigrilli dies in Buenos Aires at the age of 82. He will have published forty-three titles in fifty-five years of career. Forty-three titles, and not a word from the critics. The fact is striking. The length of Pitigrilli's purgatory is comparable to that of his contemporary Klabund. They were both wildly successful and they both belonged to the pre-war period. The German was a victim of Nazism, which did not want a skeptic and the Italian, an indirect victim of Fascism, which he had not criticized enough in the eyes of the post-war intelligentsia. But Pitigrilli's purgatory ended sooner than Klabund's: in 1976, it was Umberto Eco who prefaced the reissue, still at Sonzogno, of two of his compatriot's most famous novels, L'esperimento di Pott and Dolicocefala bionda. His admiration returned Pitigrilli to literature. We still had to return it to French readers. Bibliography Mammiferi di lusso (Sonzogno, Milan 1920), La cintura du castità (1920), Cocaina (1921), Oltraggio al pudore (1921), La vergine a diciotto carati (1923), l'Esperimento di Pott (1929), L 'Man who seeks love (1931), I vegetariani dell'amore (1931), Dolico blonde (1936), Mosè and Il Cavalier Levi (1948), Il farmacista a cavallo (1948), Saturno (1948), La piscina di Siloe (1948), La meravigliosa avventura (1948), Lezioni d'amore (1948), Apollinaria (1948), Pitigrilli parla di Pitigrilli (1949); , Il sesso degli angeli (1952), Dizionario antiballistico (1953), La moglie di Putifarro (1953) , Gusto per il mistero (1954) Come quando fuori piove (1954), La donna degli scimpanzé (1955), The "case " Susanna (1955), L'amore ha i giorni contati (1956), I figli deformano il belly (1957), Il pollo non si mangia con le mani (1957), Amore con la O maiuscola (1958), Il sacrosanto diritto di fregarsene (1962), L'ombelico di Adamo (1963), I publicani e le meretrici (1963), Amore a prezzo fesso (1963), Odor di femmina and I Kukukuku (1964), Il dito nel ventilatore (1965), La donna di 30, 40, 50, 60 anni (1967), La bella et i curculionidi (1967), Queste, codeste (1968), Quelle (1968), Amori Express (1970), Sette delitti (1971), Nostra Signora di Miss Tiff (1974).