Tommaso Fiore

Tommaso Fiore (7 March 1884 – 4 June 1973) was an Italian Meridionalist writer and a socialist intellectual and politician. He is known for his attention and his descriptions and studies on the inhumane conditions of South Italy's and Apulian peasants at that time. He's also known for his Viareggio Prize-winning book "Un popolo di formiche" ("A people of ants"). In the 1920s, he was appointed as mayor () of his hometown Altamura. During the twenty-year period of Italy's fascist era, he strenuously opposed the regime before being sent into internal exile in 1942 and then being jailed in 1943.
Life.
Tommaso Fiore was born in a working-class family on 7 March 1884. After completing higher education in a seminary school located in Conversano (as it was normal at that time for gifted students who couldn't afford public high schools), he studied classical literature at university and then he taught inside Italian classical lyceum schools. His interest were mostly focused on the poverty of South Italy's peasants and he struggled with his thoughts to find a solution to Southern Italy's economic failure (in Italian such scholars are called ). He was also a strenuous socialist and he always fought for Independence and federalism of South Italy. He also studied the poverty and other issues related to Southern Italy's peasants. In 1920s he became mayor of Altamura, his hometown and he was a courageous opponent of fascism. He was sent into internal exile in 1942 and then jailed in 1943 because of his intense propaganda against fascism.
On 19 August 1909, he also joined the Italian Freemasonry and he was appointed to the Masonic lodge number 1799 located in Altamura. On 7 February 1915, he was appointed as Master Mason.
He collaborated with Italian newspaper "La Rivoluzione liberale" whose chief editor was Piero Gobetti, and with newspaper "Quarto Stato" founded by Pietro Nenni and Carlo Rosselli, where he explained his ideas about socialist reformation of South Italy.
On 28 July 1943, he lost his son Graziano in the massacre of "via Niccolò dell'Arca", in Bari, carried out by fascists. In the aftermath of World War II, he was appointed as Latin grammar and literature teacher at the University of Bari, where he also became "Provveditore degli Studi" ("Superintendent of Studies"). In 1952, his book "Un popolo di formiche" (which means "a people of ants") won the prestigious Viareggio Prize.