Quasimodo, Salvatore, << `kwah` ZEE MOH doh, `sahl` vah TAW reh >> (1901-1968), an Italian poet, won the 1959 Nobel Prize in literature. Until about 1942, Quasimodo belonged to the hermetic school, a group of poets who wrote in a difficult, personal style that seemed sealed off from everyday life. Largely because of World War II, Quasimodo turned to a style that dealt with the events of his time. Beginning with Day After Day (1947), his poetry became an accurate reflection of the grief and destruction that the war had brought to humanity.
Quasimodo was born on Aug. 20, 1901, in Modica, near Syracuse, Sicily. In 1918, he moved to northern Italy. His first poems were published in literary magazines in Florence and later as a collection called Waters and Lands (1930). He also wrote many essays on literature, and translated the work of such writers as E. E. Cummings, Molière, Sappho, and William Shakespeare. He died on June 14, 1968.
