Antonio Tabucchi
Pisa, 24 September 1943 - Lisbon, 25 March 2012
Storyteller, theatre writer, essayist, Professor of Portoguese Literature, translator. Tabucchi has won numerous prizes and awards both in Italy and abroad, where his books have been translated in more than forty languages. Other than being one of the most significant Italian writers of the second half of the 20th century, Tabucchi was the Italian editor of Pessoa’s works, whom he contributed to make known in Italy by devoting much of his research activity to him. Over the years, Tabucchi collaborated with the most important newspapers, both Italian and foreign (e.g., "Corriere della Sera", "la Repubblica", "L'Unità'", "Il Manifesto", "Il Fatto Quotidiano", "Le Monde", "El País", "Diário de Notícias", "La Jornada", "Allgemeine Zeitung"), as well as literary journals (e.g., "La Nouvelle Revue Française", "Lettre Internationale"...) and news magazines (e.g. “MicroMega”).
Chronology
1943
Antonio Tabucchi was born in Pisa on a Sunday, on September the 24th (even though the documents report him as born on the 23rd), during the first American bombings of the city. He was the only child of Tina Pardella, a midwife, and Adamo Tabucchi, a trader/storekeeper/merchant. Tabucchi spent his childhood at his grandparents’ home, of maternal side, in Vecchiano, a suburb nearby the Tuscan city of Pisa.
1949-57
Tabucchi attended both elementary and middle school in Vecchiano.
Ever since he was a child, he started developing his passion for the arts (in several interviews he remembers of the trips to Florence with his maternal uncle who used to bring him along to the Museum of San Marco to see the Renaissance art).
Among the favorite books of his childhood there are Pinocchio by Collodi, Gulliver’s travels by Swift, and Don Quixote by Cervantes. However, a true passion for reading came to him in his teen years, precisely when he was fourteen years old: due to an incident, he was forced to stay in bed with his leg in a cast. He got through the tedious period of convalescence thanks to the adventure stories of Jack London, followed by the reading of Stevenson’s works, among which he especially loved Treasure Island.
1858-63
Tabucchi attended high school in Pisa.
1964
Tabucchi spends a year in Paris, where, as an auditor, he occasionally attended the philosophy classes at the Sorbonne, especially those taught by Vladimir Jankélévitch. On his way back to Italy, nearby the Gare de Lyon, he found on a bookstall Bureau de tabac by Álvaro de Campos (Tabacaria, in the French translation by Pierre Hourcade). Álvaro de Campos was one of the heteronyms of Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935). This is how Tabucchi became interested in that Portuguese poet as well as in the country of Portugal, along with its culture and literature.
In Italy, that fall, Tabucchi enrolled in the University of Pisa (Facoltà di Lettere), declaring as major Romance Philology. He ended up directing his studies towards the Portuguese literature, taking a class taught by Luciana Stegagno Picchio.
1965
Aboard his car, a Fiat Cincquecento, Tabucchi sets off on his first journey to Portugal, he crossed the French Riviera, Spain (stopping in Madrid), and finally reached Lisbon. Other than meeting the lady who will be his life mate, Maria José de Lancastre – he introduced himself to her with the question “Aimez-vous la littérature?” – he met important Portuguese writers and intellectuals (among which José Cardoso Pires), at the time victims of political persecution during Salazar’s regime, and he’s mostly in contact with surrealist poets, about whom he will write his final dissertation.
1969
Tabucchi graduates (Laurea in Lettere Moderne) under the supervision of Silvio Guarnieri and Luciana Stegagno Picchio, with a dissertation on Surrealism in Portugal.
1970-73
He attended the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa where he studied the baroque poets, among which especially Luís de Camões.
1970
On January the 10th, Tabucchi married Maria José de Lancastre; they have two children: Michele, born in 1970, and Teresa, born in 1973.
1971
Expanding and elaborating on his dissertation, Tabucchi published a study on the Surrealist Portuguese poets: La parola interdetta (Einaudi).
Over the years, he crucially contributed to make the Portuguese literature known in Italy, especially Fernando Pessoa, by editing his works in Italian, in collaboration with his wife Maria José de Lancastre (she was also Professor of Portuguese Literature at the University of Pisa).
1972-73
Tabucchi teaches Portuguese Language and Literature at the University of Bologna.
1975
Tabucchi’s first novel, Piazza d’Italia (Bompiani), written in 1973, is published; thanks to this novel, he wins the award “L’inedito”. He also teaches Italian and Latin in high school, in both Pontedera and San Miniato (Pisa).
1976
Tabucchi published a study on the Postwar Portuguese Theatre (Abete).
1977
Together with Maria José de Lancastre and Luciana Stegnagno Picchio, Antonio Tabucchi created the semestral Lusitanian journal “Quaderni Portoghesi” (1977-1988).
1978
Tabucchi published his second novel, Il piccolo naviglio (Mondadori).
He is also called to teach at the University of Genova, where he will stay until 1990.
1981
The collection of stories Il gioco del rovescio is published (first with Il Saggiatore; then it gets published again with more stories with Feltrinelli in 1988).
1983
The collection of stories Donna di Porto Pim is published (Sellerio).
He starts to contribute to the newspaper “La repubblica”.
1984
The novel Notturno indiano is published (Sellerio), on which, in 1989, a movie was based by Alain Corneau, with Jean-Hugues Anglade, Clémentine Célarié and Otto Tausig.
1985
The stories Piccoli equivoci senza importanza are published (Feltrinelli).
1986
Tabucchi published the novel Il filo dell'orizzonte (Feltrinelli) on which a movie was based, in 1993, with Claude Brasseur, and directed by the Portuguese Fernando Lopes.
1987
The collection of stories I volatili del Beato Angelico are published (Sellerio).
Tabucchi translates the poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Sentimento del mondo (Einaudi).
1987-89
Tabucchi is the director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Lisbon.
1988
The theatrical work of art I dialoghi mancati, made in two pièces, is published. Il signor Pirandello è desiderato al telefono, and Il tempo stringe che vedranno importanti riprese teatrali (in particular those of Claude Aufaure, Giorgio Strehler, Sergio Vecchio, and Teresa Pedroni).
Tabucchi starts contributing to the newspaper “Corriere della Sera”, with articles on cultural topics and papers on the political and social reality of Italy.
1989
The President of the Portuguese Republic bestows upon Antonio Tabucchi the “Ordine do Infante Dom Henrique”, and he’s nominated by the French Government “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres”.
1990
The study Un baule pieno di gente. Scritti su Fernando Pessoa is published (Feltrinelli).
1990-2005
Tabucchi teaches at the University of Siena.
1991
The stories in L’angelo nero (Feltrinelli) and the novel Requiem (Quetzal), the latter written in Portuguese, are published.
1992
Requiem is published in Italy and translated by Sergio Vecchio (Feltrinelli). It wins the Italian award “Pen Club”.
Sogni di Sogni is published (Sellerio).
1994
Gli ultimi tre giorni di Fernando Pessoa is published (Sellerio).
The novel Sostiene Pereira is published (Feltrinelli). It wins, on the night of September the 17th, the award «SuperCampiello» after winning the prize «Scanno» - Provincia dell'Aquila, as well as the «premio dei Lettori» - Lucca, the prize «Viareggio-Rèpaci» and the Prix Éuropéen Jean Monnet. The director Roberto Faenza films the homonymous movie (1995), in which he entrusts Marcello Mastroianni with the role of Pereira.
In November, Tabucchi is called by the École des Hautes Études in Paris to hold four lectures on Fernando Pessoa. The lectures will then be published in La nostalgie, l'automobile et l'infini. Lectures de Fernando Pessoa (Éditions du Seuil, 1998). A new edition, revised by the author, is published in 2013 with the addition of an unpublished chapter, De la cardiopathie de Fernando Pessoa.
Tabucchi is among the founders of the “International Parliament of Writers”, an association of intellectuals active from 1994 to 2003, which aimed at both protecting and giving shelter to persecuted writers due to their ideas.
1995
On September the 16th, on RAI Radio 3, the radio play Marconi, se ben mi ricordo is broadcasted. It was written by Tabucchi, commissioned by RAI on the occasion of the centenary of the invention of the radio, and directed by Giorgio Bandini.
1996
Tabucchi was a juryman for the Cannes Festival.
1997
The radio play Marconi, se ben mi ricordo (RAI- Eri) and the novel La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro (Feltrinelli), based on a true story, are published. The novel will reveal itself as prophetical, when the sergeant José dos Santos, the killer, finally owned up to the crime and is sentenced to 17 years of imprisonment.
1998
L'Automobile, la Nostalgie et l'Infini (Seuil) is published, and also a collection of short papers, originated from a controversy with respect to one of Umberto Eco’s points of view on the role of intellectuals in a society, collected in La gastrite di Platone, published in France first, translated by Bernard Comment, and then in Italy (Sellerio).
Tabucchi is awarded the prize “Nossack” by the Accademia delle Scienze e della Letteratura di Magonza.
1999
Tabucchi published the reportage Gli Zingari e il Rinascimento. Vivere da Rom a Firenze (Feltrinelli), on the life conditions of a nomadic community in Florence and on the relationships with the civic institutions. In 2001, he was awarded the Spanish prize “Hidalgo” for the gypsy culture.
2000
Tabucchi is nominated as the Italian candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature by the Italian Pen Club.
2001
The epistolary novel Si sta facendo sempre più tardi is published (Feltrinelli) and in 2002 it is awarded the prize “France Culture” for foreign literature.
Tabucchi’s critical articles regarding the Berlusconi government and the highest Italian institutions make him a more and more inconvenient contributor even for the most important Italian newspapers; as a result, they get published by “L’Unità”, “Micromega”, and “Le Monde”.
2003
The collection of texts Autobiografie altrui. Poetiche a posteriori is published (Feltrinelli).
Between March the 5th and the 23rd Tabucchi holds four lectures in Paris on the subject of European Literatures at the Collège de France, called Clair de lune. Sélénophiles et sélénophobes dans la poésie européenne du XXème siècle. Un vagabondage en quatre quartiers.
Tabucchi is invited as guest and interlocutor by Norman Menea, writer and professor of European Culture at the Bard College of New York, within his class on “Contemporary Masters”.
2004
The novel Tristano muore is published (Feltrinelli), and in 2005 it is awarded the “Prix Méditerranée Étranger”.
Tabucchi is also assigned by the Association of the European journalists the prize for journalism “Francisco Cerecedo” for his explicit defense of the freedom of expression. The prize was handed over to him by the heir of the Spanish crown, the prince of Asturias.
Tabucchi acquires Portuguese citizenship.
In June, he stands for election in the European Parliament on the list Bloco de Esquerda (Left block).
2006
L'oca al passo. Notizie dal buio che stiamo attraversando is published (Feltrinelli).
2007
Tabucchi is conferred a honorary degree by the University of Liège.
In October he’s once again invited by Norman Manea at the Bard College of New York, where he holds a lecture within the class “Contemporary Masters: Pamuk and Tabucchi”, called Eulogium: In Praise of Literature.
2009
The collection of stories Il tempo invecchia in fretta is published (Feltrinelli), and it receives the prize “Frontiere – Bimonti”.
The President of the Italian Senate, Renato Schifani, with whom Tabucchi recalled dubious associations, sues him for libel, asking more than one million of Euros as claim for damage. “Le Monde” publishes an appeal on behalf of Tabucchi, launched by Éditions Gallimard, called «Sosteniamo Tabucchi», which was signed, out of solidarity with Tabucchi, by intellectuals from all over the world.
Tabucchi collaborates with the new independent newspaper “Il Fatto Quotidiano”, directed by Antonio Padellaro, from the very first issue, in which the short story Fra generali is published.
2010
Viaggi e altri viaggi is published (edited by Paolo di Paolo, Feltrinelli).
2011
Racconti con figure is published (edited by Thea Rimini, Sellerio).
Tabucchi declines the invitation to participate to the International literary festival of Paraty, Brazil, as he disagreed with the decision of the Brazilian government not to extradite the ex-activist Cesare Battisti, sentenced in Italy for four murders committed during the Years of Lead.
2012
Tabucchi dies on March the 25th, at the age of 68, at the Hospital da Cruz Vermelha in Lisbon, after a short battle against cancer. His funerals are celebrated in Lisbon. His ashes are kept at the Cemitério dos Prazeres, in the chapel of the «Escritores Portugueses».
2013
There are some posthumous publications: the collection of essays Di tutto resta un poco. Letteratura e cinema (edited by Anna Dolfi, Feltrinelli), the novel Per Isabel. Un mandala (Feltrinelli), and the short story Isabella e l'ombra (Vittoria Iguazu Editora).
Tabucchi’s archive, featuring papers, manuscripts, unpublished works, letters, and notes has been donated, for the most part, to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
There are numerous initiatives (conferences, shows, articles and publications) organized by friends and researchers worldwide to remember him.
2016
Tabucchi’s home was purchased by the town of Vecchiano with the project of hosting a library with the books that used to belong to the writer.
2018
April the 8th – May the 7th, International Show and Conference Galáxia Tabucchi.