Giovannino Oliviero Giuseppe Guareschi (; 1 May 1908 – 22 July 1968) was an Italian journalist, cartoonist and humorist whose best known creation is the priest Don Camillo.

Life and career

Guareschi was born into a middle-class family in Fontanelle di Roccabianca, in the province of Parma, in 1908. He always joked about the fact that he, a big man, was baptized Giovannino, a name meaning "little John" or "Johnny". In 1926, his family went bankrupt and he could not continue his studies at the University of Parma. After working at various minor jobs, he started to write for a local newspaper, the Gazzetta di Parma. In 1929, he became editor of the satirical magazine Corriere Emiliano, and from 1936 to 1943 was the chief editor of a similar magazine called Bertoldo.

His most famous comic creations are his short stories, begun in the late 1940s, about the rivalry between Don Camillo, a stalwart Italian priest, and the equally hot-headed Peppone, Communist mayor of a Po River Valley village in the "Little World". These stories were dramatized on radio, television and in films, most notably in the series of films featuring Fernandel as Don Camillo.

By 1956, Guareschi's health had deteriorated and he began spending time in Switzerland for treatment. In 1957, he retired as editor of Candido but remained a contributor. He died in Cervia in 1968 of a heart attack at the age of 60.

Selected bibliography

  • La scoperta di Milano (1941)
  • Il destino si chiama Clotilde (1943)
  • Il marito in collegio (1944)
  • Favola di natale (1945)
  • Diario clandestino, 1943-1945 (1946)
  • Italia provvisoria (1947)
  • Lo zibaldino (1948)
  • Corrierino delle famiglie (1954)
  • Vita in famiglia (1968)

Published English translations

  • The Little World of Don Camillo (1950)
  • Don Camillo and his Flock (in US); Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son (in UK) (1952)
  • The House That Nino Built (1953)
  • Don Camillo's Dilemma (1954)
  • Don Camillo Takes the Devil by the Tail (in US); Don Camillo and the Devil (in UK) (1957)
  • My Secret Diary (1958)
  • Comrade Don Camillo (1964)
  • My Home, Sweet Home (1966)
  • A Husband in a Boarding School (1967)
  • Duncan & Clotilda: An Extravaganza with a Long Digression (1968)
  • Don Camillo Meets the Flower Children (in US); Don Camillo Meets Hell's Angels (in UK) (1969)
  • The Family Guareschi: Chronicles of the Past and Present (1970)

Complete English-language series of Don Camillo stories

The Guareschi family only discovered after 1980 that the original English language publishers made unauthorised cuts in the Don Camillo stories, only publishing 132 of the original 347 Italian stories. These were subsequently translated, and the entire series of short stories published by Pilot Productions. The copyright is vested in the family, and the books published so far are as follows:

  • No. 1: The Complete Little World of Don Camillo (2013)
  • No. 2: Don Camillo and His Flock (2015)
  • No. 3: Don Camillo and Peppone (2016)
  • No. 4: Comrade Don Camillo (2017)
  • No. 5: Don Camillo and Company (2018)
  • No. 6: Don Camillo's Dilemma (2019)
  • No. 7: Don Camillo Takes the Devil by the Tail (2020)
  • No. 8: Don Camillio and Don Chichi (2021)
  • No. 9: Merry Christmas Don Camillo (2022)
  • No. 10: Don Camillo of La Bassa (2023)
  • No. 11: Ciao Don Camillo, Volume One (2024)
  • No. 12: Ciao Don Camillo, Volume Two (2025)

Filmography

  • La rabbia, 1963. Co-director with Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Filmography about Don Camillo

thumb|Scene from the film [[Don Camillo: Monsignor (1961)]]

  • Little World of Don Camillo – Don Camillo (1952)
  • The Return of Don Camillo – Il ritorno di Don Camillo (1953)
  • Don Camillo's Last Round – Don Camillo e l'onorevole Peppone (1955)
  • Don Camillo: Monsignor – Don Camillo Monsignore... ma non troppo! (1961)
  • Don Camillo in Moscow – Il compagno Don Camillo (1965)
  • Don Camillo and the today's youth – Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi (1970), unfinished project
  • Don Camillo and the today's youth – Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi (1972)
  • The World of Don Camillo – Don Camillo (1983), remake with Terence Hill and Colin Blakely

References

Bibliography

  • Tutto il mondo di Guareschi (Official Site)
  • A review of Little World of Don Camillo at Open Letters Monthly
  • World of Giovannino Guareschi
  • Virtual Travel in the Little World of Guareschi