Guido da Verona

Guido da Verona (the pseudonym of Guido Verona; 7 May 1881{{spaced ndash}} 5 April 1939) was an Italian poet and novelist.

Born in Saliceto Panaro to a Jewish family, Verona started his career as a poet in 1901 with the poetry collection Commemorazione del fatto d'arme di Brichetto, followed by I frammenti d'un poema (1902) and Bianco amore (1907).{{cite book|last=Enzo Magrì|title=Guido Da Verona, L'ebreo Fascista|year=2005|publisher=Pellegrini Editore, 2005|isbn=8881012782}}

He gained a larger popularity as a novelist, starting from 1911 when he published his first novel Colei che non si deve amare, considered among the most representative examples of the Italian Feuilleton.{{cite book|last=Giovanna De Angelis, Stefano Giovanardi|title=Storia della narrativa italiana del Novecento: 1900-1922|year=2004|publisher=Feltrinelli Editore, 2004|isbn=8807817993}} He later was the most commercially successful Italian writer between 1914 and 1939:{{cite book|last=Raffaele De Berti|title=Dallo schermo alla carta|year=2000|publisher=Vita e Pensiero, 2000|isbn=8834306368}} particularly his novel Mimì Bluette, fiore del mio giardino, which reached 300,000 copies in 1922, an impressive run in Italy where illiteracy characterized the majority of the population.Giorgio Luti, Il novecento, volume 2, Piccin, 1993 {{ISBN|8829910201}}.

He was a signatory to the Manifesto of Fascist intellectuals in 1925; in 1929 he published a parody novel of Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed, that actually was an implicit satire against fascism.{{cite book|last=Enrico Tiozzo|title=Il romanzo blu, Volume 2|year=2004|publisher=Aracne, 2006|isbn=8879996223}}

He became an intellectual unpopular with the Fascist regime and marginalized after the approval of racial laws. Da Verona committed suicide in Milan at age 57.{{cite book|last=Tommaso Scappaticci|title=Lo scrittore al bivio: studi sulla letteratura del Novecento|year=2004|publisher=Pellegrini Editore, 2004|isbn=8881012111}}