Centenary of Nicola Misasi's death

Nicola Misasi was born in Paterno Calabro on 27 May 1850, into a petit-bourgeois family. Although his works do not fully fall within the realist narrative, he is considered the realist representative of Calabria. He devoted himself to literary activity fairly early on, publishing works, in prose and verse, as a self-taught author. In 1880, he moved to Naples, driven by the need to escape the provincialism of his native city, and there he came into contact with Matilde Serao, Edoardo Scarfoglio and Salvatore di Giacomo. In 1881 (a year after the publication of Vita dei campi, in the same year as Malavoglia) he published Racconti Calabresi, short stories inspired by Verga, but retaining the romantic tones of the early 19th century with an excessive search for pathetic effects and local colour. In Rome, Misasi collaborated on Fanfulla della Domenica and Cronaca bizantina, coming into contact with Carducci, D'Annunzio, Fogazzaro, Capuana and Verga. The following year he published the novella collection In Magna Sila, and the novel Marito e sacerdote. In 1884, he returned to Calabria, to Monteleone as a literature teacher at the local high school, and remained there until 1892, when he returned to Cosenza as a teacher at the "Bernardino Telesio" classical high school. He began an impressive publishing activity in Italian and foreign newspapers and periodicals, publishing not only novels and serial stories, but also travel reports and socio-economic and historical studies on Calabria. He left teaching in 1915, at the outbreak of the First World War, and retired to San Fili, a small village near Cosenza. He died in Rome on 23 November 1923.

On the 100th anniversary of his death, he is remembered with great enthusiasm and plotting at Goffredi Palace (Paterno Calabro), displaying for the occasion local Amarelli liquorice products with tin cans customised with the image of Nicola Misasi. At the end of the day, an exhibition will be inaugurated at the "Nicola Misasi" Library.