It’s the birthday of Russian/Italian author Niccolo Tucci (1908-1999, #nicelonglife), who wrote autobiographical fiction focused on his lost childhood. His works include Before My Time (1962), featuring his terrifying Russian grandmother; Unfinished Funeral (1964), about a rich and eccentric family in Spain; and The Sun and the Moon (1971), about his parents’ marriage.

NB: Tucci’s editor for all three books was Robert Gottlieb from the Almanac Project for April 29, 2019, who also happened to be Tucci’s son-in-law. And there’s our official Satisfyingly Random Connection for the week.

Tucci was born in Lugano, Switzerland; his Italian father was a doctor, and his Russian mother had been rich and privileged until the Bolshevik Revolution. Tucci’s family moved to Florence, Italy, while he was young. Tucci learned six languages and studied at the University of Florence but did an exchange year at Amherst College. While in grad school at UC Berkeley, Tucci converted to Fascism, like you do, so he went back to Italy and wrote a thesis about Mussolini. He returned to New York to spread Fascist propaganda but then ditched Fascism, moved to New York for good, and started writing anti-Fascist propaganda, after which he got sick of American politics. (And probably had whiplash.) In spite of this disillusionment with American politics, he fought for years to become an American citizen, finally succeeding in 1953.

In addition to his books, Tucci published several collections of stories, including The Rain Came Last & Other Stories (1990).

Tucci wrote in both Italian and English and is one of very few non-native writers of English to master written English so brilliantly. (Can you guess the two others? Twenty life points to anyone who can. Hint: one was Polish, one was Russian. Both have been written about in the Almanac Project.)

Tucci, who was always somewhat dashing in handmade suits and a silk foulard, was married to Laura Rusconi, with whom he had two children, until her death in 1989. Ten life points to anyone who already knows what a foulard is, without guessing from context or googling it.

Have an urbane and dashing sort of Wednesday, for goodness’ sake think twice about any Fascist leanings and avail yourself of Winston Churchill’s wise words on democracy, and stay scrupulously honest to the data.