Rodari, Gianni

Rodari, Gianni 

Born Oct. 23, 1920, in Omegna. Italian children’s writer. Member of the Italian Communist Party since 1944.

Rodari was a member of the Resistance Movement. In 1948 he began publishing in the newspaper Unità poems about the children of contemporary working-class Italy that in form closely resemble children’s folklore. Rodari’s poems in the collections Little Book of Nonsense Rhymes (1951), Nonsense Rhymes in the Sky and on the Earth (1960), and Train of Nonsense Rhymes displayed his ability to reveal the world’s complexity and meaningfulness in the ordinary, small phenomena of life.

Rodari’s poetry combines wholesome humor, melodiousness, social satire, and optimism. He has also written novellalike fairy tales, including the fantastical The Adventures of Cipollino (1951; Russian translation, 1955), which is about a boy-onion and is written in the tradition of C. Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, and Fables on the Telephone (1962; Russian translation, 1967). Rodari is also involved in publishing and journalism. The best translations of his poems have been made by S. Ia. Marshak.

WORKS

Tante storie per giocare. [Rome, 1971.]
Novelle fatte a macchina. Turin, 1973.
Marionette in libertà. Turin, 1974.
Grammatica della fantasia. Turin, 1973.
In Russian translation:
Zdravstvuite, deti! Translated by S. Marshak. Moscow, 1955.
Poezda i goroda. Translated by S. Marshak. Moscow, 1955.
Vsemirnyi khorovod. Translated by S. Marshak. Moscow, 1962.
Chempakhnut remesla? [Kaliningrad, 1972.]

REFERENCES

Potapova, Z. “Bor’ba za progressivnuiu detskuiu literaturu ν Italii.” In the collection Voprosy detskoi literatury. Moscow, 1957.
Brandis, E. Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari. Moscow, 1965.

Z. M. POTAPOVA