Guido Morselli

Guido Morselli was born in Bologna on 15th August 1912, second child of Giovanni Morselli and Olga Vincenzi; at his birth, Luisa, his sister was one year old. Subsequently his parents had two other children: Maria born in 1915 and Mario born in 1922.

In 1914 Giovanni Morselli and his family moved to Milan, in the neighbourhod of Caffaro Industry, the company he worked for.

Once he had got a Chemistry degree in Bologna, Guido’s father moved to Milan in 1900 and became executive of Carlo Erba Company. Deputy during the second fascist legislation he has never supported the regime ideology. From 1935 to 1940 Giovanni Morselli has been director of the Lombard provinces Savings Bank.

Later on, in 1911, the owners of  Caffaro Industry, the Visconti di Modrone family conferred him the charge of executive and managing director of the chemical industry he has been working for until 1953.

In 1922, Olga Vincenzi, after the death of Augusto Morselli, her father-in-law, fell ill with Spanish fever and left her family in order to take care of herself in Gardone. She died in Milan in 1924.

In 1927 Guido attended “Leone XIII Institute” a Jesuits school in Milan, and in 1931, he took a diploma at “Parini “ classical Lyceum. On 10 July 1935 Guido Morselli took a Law degree with a mark of 102/110 at the Royal Study University in Milan (today’s Public University). After the degree he left for the military service as a cadet officer at the Alpine School in Bassano del Grappa, then, as an officer, he asked for the transfer to the infantry in Milan, Sant’Ambrogio Square. Officer on the reserve, he had been hired by Caffaro industry, for the position of communicator and advertising promoter. This work experience lasted less than one year.

In 1938, after the untimely death of his sister Luisa, Guido Morselli obtained from his father a moderate life annuity, which allowed him to devote himself to his favorite activities: reading, studying and writing. In the same year his father bought some lands in Gavirate, near Varese.

In March 1940 Guido was called up again as an officer and he was sent to Sardinia, in Sant’Antioco Isle. Later on, when Italy joined the war, the Morselli family moved to Varese, in their summer residence.

In 1942 he was sent to the military Academy in Modena for some months and then to Piedmont, near Turin to attend a refresher course. Subsequently, Guido came back to Varese where, in his summer residence, he met Maria Bruna Bassi, the woman who became a close friend and the only supporter of the writer during his pilgrimages in search for a publishing house.

In 1943 Guido Morselli was in Timponello Montepaone a military outpost near Catanzaro. During his Calabrian “exile”, in August 1943, Garzanti published, with a preface by Antonio Banfi, his first book: “Proust o del sentimento”, a treaty on “La Recherche”, the most popular work of the French writer. After having spent more than two years in Calabria without any contact with his family, Guido came back home. In 1947 Fratelli Bocca publishing house printed another of Morselli’s essays: “Realismo e fantasia”, the second and last book seeing the day during its author life.

In 1948 his father and his family came back to Milan, but Guido decided to remain in Varese, in total seclusion for reading and writing. In 1952 by his son express request, Giovanni Morselli ordered a little house to be built for him on Santa Trinità al Sasso hillock, in Gavirate. The pink and square residence reflected Guido’s design and project. The lands around the house were carefully cultivated and lovely cared by Guido himself too, he even produced a wine labeled “Santa Trinità”, name that he used to give to his estate. His identity card carried the caption farmer at the voice profession.

In 1951, at the age of 39, Guido started to deposit his will with a notary in Varese, testament which he has enriched with some special codicils until 1977.

In the loneliness of Santa Trinità he wrote the most part of his works: essays, short stories, novels and comedies. He also wrote some articles in collaboration with some local newspapers and with “Il Tempo” of Milan.

During the 50s and 60s he bought a 8mm cine camera and he shot some short films in Gavirate and in the countryside surroundings Varese.

On the saddle of Zeffirino, the mare his father gave him, he loved riding all over the mountains and countryside surrounding Varese, but also across the streets in Gavirate.

After his father’s death, in 1958, Guido let the summer residence and moved definitively to Gavirate, where he stayed until 1972.

In Santa Trinità, between 1961 and 1962 Morselli wrote “Un dramma Borghese”, between 1964 and 1965 “Il comunista”, in  1966 “Brave borghesi”, between 1966 and 1967 “Roma senza papa”, between 1969 and 1970 “Contro-passato prossimo: un’ipotesi retrospettiva” between 1970 and 1971 “Divertimento 1889” and between 1972 and 1973, the year of his death, he wrote “Dissipatio H.G”.

During his late years, some groups of bikers used to ride on the grassland and in the wood around Guido’s house in Gavirate. In December 1972 Morselli, very sensitive to noises decided to move again to Varese, in his summer residence outhouse.

In the tragic summer of 1973 in the night between 31st July and 1st August, on his return from a short stay in Macugnaga, Guido Morselli took his own life. Before dying, with a gun shot at his temple, he was rumored to have written to Varese Police Headquarters: “I have no hard feelings”.

The publishing of Guido Morselli’s works started, with an incredible public’s approval, one year after his death, thanks to “Roma senza papa”, printed by Adelphi.

Since then, the “Morselli’s matter” has started and has created a vivid attention about Guido’s literary works and about his unique life.