Luigi Pirandello  (1867-1936) War LINKS Biography of Luigi Pirandello http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1934/pirandello-bio.html This brief biographical page on Pirandello is part of The Electronic Nobel Museum Project, giving information on presents information about the Nobel Prizes, the Nobel Laureates and their discoveries. BIOGRAPHY Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936)  Pirandello was born in Sicily, but moved to Rome when he was nineteen. He earned a degree in philosophy from the University of Bonn, and returned to Rome in 1897 to teach at a girl's high school. There he remained until 1923. He wrote poetry in his youth, but soon enjoyed considerable success for his novels and short stories. In 1912, a friend persuaded him to dramatize one of his own short stories, and that experience led to distinguished achievement in the theater. Pirandello's plays, particularly Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921), were performed and critically acclaimed throughout Europe and the United States. In 1920, he said: "My art is full of bitter compassion for all those who deceive themselves; but this compassion cannot fail to be followed by the ferocious derision of destiny which condemns man to deception." He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1934.