View source for Lauro De Bosis

{{short description|Italian poet and aviator (1901–1931)}}
{{Infobox writer  <!--For more information, see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]].-->
| name = Lauro De Bosis
| image = Lauro De Bosis4.jpg
| image_size =
| alt = Lauro De Bosis
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1901|12|09|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Rome]], Italy
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1931|10|03|1901|12|09|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Tyrrhenian Sea]]
| occupation = Writer, poet, aviator
| language = Italian
| nationality = Italian
| education = Chemistry
| alma_mater = [[Sapienza University of Rome]]
| period = 1930–1931
| genre =         <!-- or: | genres =      -->
| subject =       <!-- or: | subjects =    -->
| movement =
| notableworks =  <!-- or: | notablework = -->
| partner = [[Ruth Draper]]
| relatives =
| awards =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| years_active = 1924–1931
| module =
| portaldisp =    <!-- "on", "yes", "true", etc; or omit -->
}}
{{MedalTop}}
{{MedalSport | [[Art competitions at the Summer Olympics|Art competitions]]}}
{{MedalSilver | [[1928 Summer Olympics|1928 Amsterdam]] | [[Art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics|Dramatic works]]}}
{{MedalBottom}}
'''Lauro Adolfo De Bosis''' ([[Rome]], 9 December 1901 &ndash; [[Tyrrhenian Sea]], 3 October 1931) was an Italian poet, [[aviator]], and anti-fascist.

==Life==
Lauro de Bosis was born in 1901. His mother was Lillian Vernon, a New Englander, and his father, Adolfo, a minor poet and editor of the review, ''Convito''. Their home was a type of intellectual salon. His father translated Shelley, while Lauro himself translated tragedies by Aeschylus and Sophocles, and Frazer's ''Golden Bough''. At university he studied chemistry.<ref>Farrell, Joseph. "Icarus as Anti-Fascist Myth: The Case of Lauro de Bosis", ''Italica'', Vol. 69, No. 2 (Summer, 1992), pp. 198-209, American Association of Teachers of Italian</ref>

==Anti-fascism==
De Bosis became quickly disillusioned with Mussolini after the 1924 murder of the anti-fascist politician [[Giacomo Matteotti]].<ref name=DiMartino>{{Cite web |url=http://www.theamericanmag.com/article.php?article=2419 |title=DiMartino, Marc Alan. "Icarus", ''The American'', June 4, 2010 |access-date=September 22, 2014 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304125519/http://www.theamericanmag.com/article.php?article=2419 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1928 he won a silver medal in the art competitions of the Olympic Games for his verse-drama "Icaro", an anti-fascist allegory disguised as a retelling of the Greek myth.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/920850 |title=Lauro De Bosis |work=Olympedia |accessdate=23 July 2020}}</ref> That same year he met actress [[Ruth Draper]] and commenced a relationship that continued until his death.

De Bosis shuttled back and forth between Italy and the United States, where he taught Italian literature at Harvard.<ref name=DiMartino/> In the summer of 1930, De Bosis resigned from the Italy-America Society to found the "Alleanza Nazionale" and concentrate on the group's mission—the clandestine circulation of anti-Fascist newsletters in Italy. Inspired by another anti-Fascist ([[Giovanni Bassanesi]]) who earlier had flown over Milan dropping leaflets denouncing Il Duce, de Bosis decided to embark upon a similar flight over Rome.<ref name=draper>{{Cite web |url=http://www.drapermonologues.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&page_id=28#poet |title="The Actress and the Poet", the Ruth Draper Momologues |access-date=2014-09-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309165206/http://www.drapermonologues.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&page_id=28#poet |archive-date=2016-03-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The following summer De Bosis took flying lessons.
 
[[File:Lauro De Bosis2.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A black and white photo of a man in a suit and bow tie, wearing a pilot helmet, standing in front of a small propeller-driven monoplane|Lauro De Bosis in front of his [[Klemm L 25]] in 1931]]
On 3 October 1931, with only seven-and-a-half hours flying time and a partially filled fuel tank, De Bosis took off from [[Marseille]] on a small [[Klemm L 25]], heading for Corsica and then Italy. He reached Rome and circled for half an hour over the city centre, including Piazza Venezia – where Mussolini was sitting in council – dropping thousands of antifascist leaflets during the crowded evening hour. He was gone by the time the Italian Air Forces responded. The small wooden plane headed out to sea for Corsica never to be seen again.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/29/books/books-of-the-times-223375.html Mitgang, Herbert. "A Need to Testify", ''New York Times'', May 29, 1984]</ref> According to the pilots who had fuelled the plane, he was an inexperienced pilot and had told them that he intended to fly from Nice to Barcelona and back, so his plane had not been fully fuelled. A promising poet, at the time of his death he had been editing a volume of Italian poetry for the [[Oxford University Press]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Firchow|first=Peter Edgerly|title=W.H. Auden: Contexts for Poetry|year=2002|publisher=University of Delaware Press|isbn=978-0874137668|page=97}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Origo|first=Iris|title=A Need to Testify|date=1 April 2002|edition=New|publisher=Turtle Point Press|isbn=978-1885586513|pages=86, 109}}</ref> His papers are saved in [[Houghton Library]], Harvard University.

In 1938, actress [[Ruth Draper]] made an endowment to maintain a [[lecture series]] on Italian culture, history and society, named after De Bosis in Harvard University.<ref name=draper/> In 1973 more funds were supplied by Fiat's [[Giovanni Agnelli Foundation]].<ref>{{Cite news | last = Gilmore | first = Myron P. | title = ITALIAN LECTURESHIP, letter | work = The Harvard Crimson | accessdate = 2014-01-14 | date = 1974-02-28 | url = http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1974/2/28/italian-lectureship-pto-the-editors-of/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news| title = Harvard Fills Post In Italian Studies After Long Vacancy| work = The Harvard Crimson| accessdate = 2014-01-14| date = 1974-02-04| url = http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1974/2/4/harvard-fills-post-in-italian-studies/}}</ref> De Bosis Committee now grants [[Postdoctoral research|postdoctoral]] fellowships, invites [[Professors in the United States#Visiting professor|visiting professor]]s and organizes Colloquia in [[Italian studies]].

[[Thornton Wilder]] dedicated his novel ''[[Ides of March (novel)|Ides of March]]'' (1948) to him.
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==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Diggins, John P. ''Mussolini and Fascism. The view from America''. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1972, 430.
* De Bosis, L. ''The Story of My Death''. English translation by Ruth Draper. Oxford University Press, 1933

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070216051221/http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=DEBOSLAU01 Olympic profile] <!-- name misspelt -->
* [http://www.undo.net/cgi-bin/undo/pressrelease/pressrelease.pl?id=1159786214&day=1159826400 Pressrelease] {{in lang|it}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100717064158/http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou01187 Lauro De Bosis papers, 1917-1933: Guide. Harvard University Library]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170421160336/http://romancesphere.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k56942&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup96809 De Bosis Colloquium in Italian Studies: Audio interviews]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:De Bosis, Lauro}}
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1931 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian translators]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]
[[Category:Italian male poets]]
[[Category:Italian aviators]]
[[Category:Italian anti-fascists]]
[[Category:Italian people of American descent]]
[[Category:Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents]]
[[Category:Missing aviators]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1928 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Olympic silver medalists for Italy]]
[[Category:Olympic silver medalists in art competitions]]
[[Category:Olympic competitors in art competitions]]
[[Category:People who died at sea]]
[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1931]]
[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in international waters]]