Vivanti, Annie

POET (ITALY)
BORN 7 Apr 1866, London: Norwood - DIED 20 Feb 1942, Torino, Piemonte
BIRTH NAME Vivanti, Anna Emilia
GRAVE LOCATION Torino, Piemonte: Cimitero Monumentale, Corso Novara (B 13 (Ampliazione Prima Campo Nord Gruppo 663 Fossa Multipla 001))

Annie Vivanti was the daughter of Anselmo Vivanti, a silk trader and patriot from Mantova and the German author Anna Lindau, a sister of Paul and Rudolph Lindau. Her father was a follower of Manzini and he had fled to England after the uprisings in Mantova in 1851.

She grew up in Italy, England, Switzerland and the ISA. After living as a theatre artist for a while, in 1890 her first collection of poetry "Lirica" was published in Italy. It had a preface by her lover Giosuč Carducci and was an instant success. In 1891 a novel followed, "Marion artista di caffč concerto".

She married the Irishman John Chartres in 1892 and during the next twenty years she lived in England and the USA and only wrote stories in English. In 1893 they had a daughter, Vivien Chartres (1893-1941) who was an excellent violinist and was already a celebrity as a child. In 1905 Annie published "The Story of a Wunderkind", followed by "The Devourers" (1910), her best known work and inspired by her daughter. In 1911 she published an Italian version of that book, "I divoratori". It was her first Italian publication in many years but many successful novels in Italian followed during the next decades.

Although she had been sympathetic to Mussolini's cause she was placed under house arrest in Arezzo in 1941 because of her British connections. In the autumn of 1941 she received news that Vivien had committed suicide in Brighton. Her health detoriated quickly afterwards and she died in February, 1942.

Related persons
• was the lover of Carducci, Giosuč

Images

The grave of Annie Vivanti at the Cimitero Monumentale, Turin.
Picture by Androom (28 Feb 2014)

 

Sources
Annie Vivanti - Wikipedia
Biography: Vivanti, Annie


Vivien, Reneé

Published: 06 Apr 2015
Last update: 30 Mar 2022