Born in Pula-Croatia to Piedmontese parents, Arpino moved to Bra in the Province of Cuneo. Here he married Caterina Brero before moving to Turin, where he remained for the rest of his life.
He graduated in 1951 with a thesis on the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin. The following year he made his literary debut with the novel Sei stato felice, Giovanni (1952), published by Einaudi.
Arpino took up sports journalism, writing for the daily papers La Stampa and Il Giornale. Together with Gianni Brera at the La Gazzetta dello Sport, he brought a new literary quality to Italian writing on sport. His most important work in this line was the 1977 football novel Azzurro tenebra. In Italy, he got to know the Argentinian writer and fellow sports enthusiast Osvaldo Soriano.
Arpino also wrote plays, short stories, epigrams, and stories for children.
He won the Strega Prize in 1964 with L'ombra delle colline, the Premio Campiello of 1972 with Randagio è l'eroe, and the 1980 SuperCampiello with Il fratello italiano. His novels are characterised by a dry and ironic style.
Arpino died in Turin in 1987. His birthplace of Bra has celebrated his links to that town by establishing a multifunctional cultural centre and a prize for children's literature.
In a 1991 documentary for the French television series Un livre un jour Arpino appeared as himself.
References
This article was based originally on its counterpart in the Italian Wikipedia, it:Giovanni Arpino, which is licensed under the GFDL.
Further reading
Mariano D’Amora, ‘Giovanni Arpino’ in Encyclopedia of Italian literary studies, ed. by Gaetana Marrone and others, 2 vols (New York; London: Routledge, 2007) II, 95–97.