Pietro Di Donato(1911-1992)

American novelist Pietro Di Donato was born in West Hoboken, NJ, to Italian immigrants. His most famous novel, "Christ in Concrete", is basically an autobiography, being an account of an immigrant growing up in a strange country. When he was 12 Di Donato's father, a bricklayer, was killed when the building he was working on collapsed. His mother died a few years later, leaving Pietro--the oldest of eight children--as the head of the family. He had to leave grammar school to support his new family, and took up his father's job as a bricklayer. Despite the hardships a 12-year-old in his circumstances encountered, he managed to attend night school classes and read anything he could lay his hands on, and took up writing himself. In 1937 he sold his first work, "Christ in Concrete", to "Esquire" magazine. He later expanded the story to become the first chapter in his novel of the same name. However, with the responsibilities he had to raise his siblings, it wasn't until 1938 that he could afford to take time off to finish the book, which was finally published in 1939. It was a sensation, with Di Donato being hailed by some critics as among the most important Italian-American writers of the 20th century (it was adapted into a movie, Donnez-nous aujourd'hui (1949)).

In 1958 he wrote a sequel to the novel, "This Woman". In 1960 he came out with another book in the same vein, "Three Circles of Light". That same year he wrote "Immigrant Saint", a biography of Frances Cabrini, a nun who was the first American to be canonized a saint by the Catholic church. In 1961 he published another novel, "The Penitent". In 1976 he wrote an article for "Penthouse" magazine, "Christ in Plastic", about the kidnapping and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades terrorist group. He later adapted the article into a play, "Moro".

Pietro Di Donato died of bone cancer in 1992 at Stony Brook, Long Island, NY.