D'Annunzio, Gabriele

D'Annunzio, Gabriele (b. 12 Mar. 1863, d. 1 Mar. 1938). Italian writer and political adventurer A prolific and increasingly well-known writer of novels, poetry, and short stories in the 1880s and 1890s, he entered the Chamber of Deputies in 1897 where his support oscillated between the extreme right and the extreme left. He left politics in 1900 and entered the most productive period of his life, partly inspired by his eventful and well-publicized affair with Eleonora Duse. Because of debts he left Italy in 1910 but returned to serve in World War I, where he became a war hero with a daring and distinguished record in the army, the navy, and, especially, the air force. Appalled by the Italian failure to secure the disputed city of Fiume at the Paris Peace Conference, he staged a coup and took control of the city. He established an authoritarian right-wing city-state and managed to defy the Italian authorities for sixteen months, until he was eventually forced to abandon the city by Giolitti in January 1921. He retired and became a cultural figurehead in Fascist Italy.