Keywords

Primo Levi, Italian literature, literature

Abstract

Primo Levi has been well known in Italy for many years. Even though his first book Se questo è un uomo–published in English as Survival in Auschwitz–did not sell well when first published by De Silva in 1947 (2,500 copies published, of which 600 remained unsold and were eventually destroyed by the 1966 flood in Florence), it was accepted unanimously in Italy as a literary masterpiece and a great witness to history when Einaudi republished the volume in 1956. From that moment on, Italian readers and critics have acknowledged the literary beauty and importance of Levi's writings. He earned the Premio Campiello for La tregua (The Reawakening) in 1963, the Premio Bagutta for Storie naturali in 1967 (written under the pseudonym of Damiano Malabaila), the Premio Prato per la Resistenza for Il sistema periodico (The Period Table) in 1975, and the Premio Viareggio together with a second Premio Campiello for Se non orange, quando? (If Not Now, When?) in 1983.

Original Publication Citation

"Primo Levi: The Drowned, the Saved and the 'Grey Zone'," Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual, 7 (1990), 77-89.