Provenance and early years Antonio Baldini was born in
Rome. Count Gabriele Baldini (1860–1916), his father, was a minor aristocrat, originally from
Santarcangelo in
Romagna, and employed for many years by the
Ministry for Public Works, notably in connection with the administration of contracts for railway development. His mother, born Sofia Alkaique (1861-1929), came from
Livorno (
Tuscany), possibly having been born into an immigrant family. He attended a number of schools in
Rome, including the prestigious
Ennio Quirino Visconti Liceo Ginnasio. He then enrolled to study literature at the
Sapienza University of Rome, although he would not complete his studies there and graduate until 1916. By that time he already had become a journalist. Baldini's first published work appeared in 1912 in another literary journal, "Lirica", founded earlier that same year by
Arturo Onofri and
Umberto Fracchia. These early contributions combined semi-autobiographical confessional aspects (
"fatto personale") with a mix of fantasy, reverie and humour. In 1914 they were combined into a single slim volume entitled "Pazienze e impazienze del Maestro Pastoso" (
loosely, "Patience and impatience of Mr. Pastry"). In 1915 Baldini became a regular contributor to the Italian right-of-centre
irridentist newspaper ''
L'Idea Nazionale'' which had recently switched from weekly to daily publication. Baldini's articles appeared on the third page, which by tradition in Italian newspapers was less political than the outer pages and a more focused on literature and other arts-related topics. His contributions consisted of a series of "passeggiate" (
literally, "gentle recreational walks, seldom undertaken alone, and generally involving mutually agreeable conversation) or "vedute romane" (
"vistas of Rome"). Work for ''L'Idea Nazionale
brought Baldini to the notice of a far wider readership. Baldini was a member of the editorial board of the Rome-based magazine La Ronda'' between 1919 and 1922. On 3 November 1915 he was badly wounded in
the battle for Monte San Michele, in the mountains inland to the north-west of
Trieste. His involvement earned him a
Silver Medal for Military Valo(u)r. He was then sent back to
Rome to recover. For
L'Illustrazione Italiana he also sent back from the frontline a series of "dialoghetti" and "storielle" (
short dialogues and stories) under the pseudonym "Gatto Lupesco" (
loosely, "Wolf-Cat") which enabled him to pull together, in 1918, another book, "Nostro purgatorio", using his experiences as a war correspondent. He continued, in addition, to work with
L'Illustrazione Italiana, contributing more "vedute e chronache romane" (
"vistas and chronicles of Rome"). Baldini's contributions also appeared, as they had before Italy became engaged in the war-time fighting, in
L'Idea Nazionale, consisting of reviews, critical profiles and literary moralisings in varying proportions, but always crisp and razor sharp in their syntax and arguments. A compilation of some of these works was published in two volumes in 1920, entitled respectively "Umori di gioventù" and "Salti di gomitolo". Some selections from these works have also been issued in subsequent publications. There were also fictional pieces, such as the "Fables of Michelaccio" which appeared in instalments starting in 1920, and was then reissued, heavily reworked, as a single volume, in 1924. Between 1920 and 1922 Baldini was abroad for much of the time, employed as private secretary to
General De Marinis, who had been sent to command the
Inter-allied governance and
plebiscite commission in
Upper Silesia. His duties did not preclude continuing with his contributions to the Italian press, and the entire experience was a source of inspiration and insight for future writings. He found and shared food for thought in the marginalia of news stories and unexpected local customs, such as those referenced in a series of articles appeared between 1926 and 1929 in
"La Tribuna-L'Idea nazionale" (the title of the former "L'Idea Nazionale", following an acquisition and merger at the end of 1925) using the pseudonym "Melafumo". (Over time "Melafumo" became more than a mere pseudonym emerging as a "younger brother" to "Michelaccio", Baldini's pseudonymous narrator of fiction from earlier works.) Between 1928 and 1943, increasingly, Baldini's journalistic work was giving birth to a succession of books, starting with "La dolce calamita" (1929: retitled and re-issued in 1940 as "Beato fra le donne" /
"Blessed between women") and "Amici allo spiedo" (1932: retitled, expanded and re-issued in 1942 as "Buoni incontri d'Italia"). He wrote more book as well: "Se rinasco..." (1944), "Fine Ottocento" (1947), "Melafumo" (1950), "Quel caro magon di Lucia" (1956). Meanwhile, during 1950 Baldini was appointed president of the team responsible for organising the
6th "Rome Quadriennale" (major art exhibition), to be held between December 1951 and March 1952 at the
Exhibitions Palace in
central Rome. It was a position which imposed certain unwelcome constraints in terms of his personal art purchases, and one which he would retain in respect of subsequent
Quadrienali for more than a decade. In 1953 he accepted a corresponding membership of the prestigious
Accademia dei Lincei. In 1954 he was involved, along with
Enrico Gianeri, Mario Sertoli and Tem Agostini, in the launch of another review magazine, "Cronache d'altri tempi" (
"Chronicles of former times"). He won the
Feltrinelli Literature Prize, worth at that time
5 million lire, in 1957. By this time, however, conscious of his declining health, he had for some years been cutting down on his workload. Baldini had been diagnosed with serious heart disease during or before 1952. He nevertheless undertook several apparently work related foreign visits during his final years, visiting
Greece in 1956, Spain in 1958 and England in 1961. His final heart attack took place the next year: Antonio Baldini died in
Rome on 6 November 1962. == The writer ==