Mario Luzi, 90; Poet Was Considered Italy’s Best Hope for Nobel Prize

Mario Luzi, 90, an Italian poet, essayist and senator-for-life, died Monday in his native Florence of unspecified causes.

Widely respected, Luzi had been considered Italy’s best hope for the Nobel Prize in literature but never achieved that honor. He became senator-for-life last year. Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said that with Luzi’s death, the nation had lost “one of its purest, clearest, strongest voices.”

Luzi studied French literature and began publishing his poetry in the 1930s. His work was rooted in the “hermetic school,” which originated in Italy in the early 20th century and was characterized by unorthodox structure, illogical sequences and highly subjective language. He became well-known in literary circles in the 1950s with the anthology “Primizie del Deserto (Desert’s Early Fruits).”

Also an essayist, Luzi published works on French poet Stephane Mallarme and the Italian poets Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Pascoli. Luzi taught French literature at the University of Florence.