La Capria was born in
Naples, where he was to spend the formative years of his life. There he graduated in law, before staying in France, England, and the United States and then settling in
Rome. He contributed to the cultural pages of the
Corriere della Sera and was co-director of the literary journal
Nuovi Argomenti. A particular interest was English poetry of the 1930s: as well as writing numerous articles he translated works including
T. S. Eliot's
Four Quartets. In the 1950s he wrote and produced a number of radio programmes for
RAI on foreign contemporary drama. In 1957 La Capria was invited to participate in the International Seminar of Literature at
Harvard University. In 1961 his novel
Ferito a morte won the prestigious literary award Strega Prize. La Capria worked as co-scriptwriter on a number of
Francesco Rosi's films, including
Le mani sulla città (1963),
Uomini contro (1970), and
Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1979). In September 2001 he received a
Premio Campiello lifetime achievement award and in 2005 ''L'estro quotidiano'' was selected as the winner of the
Viareggio Prize for fiction. La Capria was the widower of the actress
Ilaria Occhini. He died in Rome on 26 June 2022, at the age of 99. ==Bibliography==