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Arturo and Nancy Vivante in New York in 1958. |
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Arturo Vivante, 84
Writer, doctor, teacher, father, grandfather
Arturo Vivante, 84, a writer known chiefly for the many stories he published in The New Yorker over a period beginning in 1958, died peacefully after a long illness on April 1 at his home in Wellfleet.
He was the husband of the late Nancy Adair Bradish Vivante.
Mr. Vivante was born in Rome in 1923, the son of the philosopher Leone Vivante and Elena DeBosis Vivante, a painter. His earliest years were spent in Castel Gandolfo, a town southeast of Rome. The family moved to a new home near Siena, Villa Solaia, in 1927.
During WW II, in response to the growing tide of fascism and anti-Semitism, the family moved to England. At 16, while then living in Canada, Mr. Vivante was technically considered an “enemy alien” because of his Italian citizenship despite his father’s Jewish heritage. In 1941 he was interned in a camp on St. Helen’s Island in Montreal for a year, during which he continued to speak out against fascism. He was freed after a petition was filed by family friend and American dramatist Ruth Draper and he then finished high school in Montreal.
He received a BA from McGill University in 1944. After WW II he returned to Italy and studied medicine, graduating with his medical degree from Rome University in 1949.
He wrote from an early age and when his stories began to be published in the 1950s he decided to give up his medical practice and devote his time to writing. He married Nancy Bradish and they came to live in the U.S. in 1958, settling in New York and later living in Boston, Orleans and finally moving to Wellfleet in 1964.
In the half century before his death, he published 70 stories in The New Yorker beginning with “The Stream” in 1958. He also published in many other publications including Vogue, The New York Times, London Magazine, The Guardian and The Southern Review.
In addition to publishing five collections of his stories, he composed three novels (“Doctor Giovanni” 1959, “A Goodly Babe,” 1966, and “Truelove Knot,” 2007), poems (“Poesie,” 1951), essays (“Writing Fiction,” 1980), translations (“Poems, Giacomo Leopardi,” 1988, and “Italian Poetry, an Anthology,” 1990), many essays and several plays.
His awards include the Katherine Anne Porter Award for fiction in 2006; the Richard Sullivan Prize for short fiction in 2004; the Italian Communication Award in 1976 and a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1979.
He taught creative writing and literature at various colleges and universities between 1968 and 1993, including the University of Iowa, Bennington and MIT.
Other interests include drawing and carpentry. He was accomplished at keeping the antique furniture and the family home in Wellfleet in good repair. He had friends of all ages and loved to visit with them. He liked to explore the land around him and travel the back roads of the Cape. And he especially enjoyed a meal in the sun. His daughter Lydia said that when asked what he wanted for lunch, if the weather happened to be good, he would answer, “a picnic.”
Throughout his life, his passion for words was his mainstay. He loved literature, was a scholar of Italian and English poetry and the Russian novel, and often quoted passages of Shelley, Keats, Shakespeare, Swinburne and Giacomo Leopardi from memory. He was known in his many public readings as a lyrical speaker.
In speaking about his life as a writer, he is quoted as saying, “My writing is mainly a study of life as I've known it. I wrote to know the mystery that even a small matter holds. Through my writing I have come on some of the calmest, clearest and brightest moments of my life.”
He is survived by his children and grandchildren: Lucy Vivante of Wellfleet and her son, Lucas Miller; Lydia Vivante of Wellfleet, Benjamin Vivante of Lexington, Leslie McDowell and her two sons, James and Matthew, of Maryland; a brother, Cesare Vivante, of Milan, and a sister, Charis Vivante, of Florence.
A memorial service to celebrate his life will be held during the summer in Wellfleet on a date to be announced
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Jean A. Malchman, 84
Pearl H. Baker, 94
Annette Savage, 94
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Apr 10th, 2008