Oriana Fallaci

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born

June 29, 1929 in Florence, Italy

died

September 15, 2006

gender

female

About this author

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Fallaci was born in Florence, Italy. During World War II, she joined the resistance despite her youth, in the democratic armed group "Giustizia e Libertà". Her father Edoardo Fallaci, a cabinet maker in Florence, was a political activist struggling to put an end to the dictatorship of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini. It was during this period that Fallaci was first exposed to the atrocities of war.

Fallaci began her journalistic career in her teens, becoming a special correspondent for the Italian paper Il mattino dell'Italia centrale in 1946. Since 1967 she worked as a war correspondent, in Vietnam, for the Indo-Pakistani War, in the Middle East and in South America. For many years, Fallaci was a special correspondent for the politi...more Fallaci was born in Florence, Italy. During World War II, she joined the resistance despite her youth, in the democratic armed group "Giustizia e Libertà". Her father Edoardo Fallaci, a cabinet maker in Florence, was a political activist struggling to put an end to the dictatorship of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini. It was during this period that Fallaci was first exposed to the atrocities of war.

Fallaci began her journalistic career in her teens, becoming a special correspondent for the Italian paper Il mattino dell'Italia centrale in 1946. Since 1967 she worked as a war correspondent, in Vietnam, for the Indo-Pakistani War, in the Middle East and in South America. For many years, Fallaci was a special correspondent for the political magazine L'Europeo and wrote for a number of leading newspapers and Epoca magazine. During the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics, Fallaci was shot three times, dragged down stairs by her hair, and left for dead by Mexican forces. According to The New Yorker, her former support of the student activists "devolved into a dislike of Mexicans":

The demonstrations by immigrants in the United States these past few months "disgust" her, especially when protesters displayed the Mexican flag. "I don't love the Mexicans," Fallaci said, invoking her nasty treatment at the hands of Mexican police in 1968. "If you hold a gun and say, 'Choose who is worse between the Muslims and the Mexicans,' I have a moment of hesitation. Then I choose the Muslims, because they have broken my balls."

In the late 1970s, she had an affair with the subject of one of her interviews, Alexandros Panagoulis, who had been a solitary figure in the Greek resistance against the 1967 dictatorship, having been captured, heavily tortured and imprisoned for his (unsuccessful) assassination attempt against dictator and ex-Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos. Panagoulis died in 1976, under controversial circumstances, in a road accident. Fallaci maintained that Panagoulis was assassinated by remnants of the Greek military junta and her book Un Uomo (A Man) was inspired by the life of Panagoulis.

During her 1972 interview with Henry Kissinger, Kissinger agreed that the Vietnam War was a "useless war" and compared himself to "the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse".[4] Kissinger later wrote that it was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press."

Fallaci has twice received the St. Vincent Prize for journalism, as well as the Bancarella Prize (1971) for Nothing, and So Be It; Viareggio Prize (1979), for Un uomo: Romanzo; and Prix Antibes, 1993, for Inshallah. She received a D.Litt. from Columbia College (Chicago). She has lectured at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Harvard University, and Columbia University.[citation needed] Fallaci’s writings have been translated into 21 languages including English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Swedish, Polish, Croatian and Slovenian.

Fallaci was a life-long heavy smoker. She died on September 15, 2006 in her native Florence from breast cancer.

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Average rating: 3.76 · 4,688 ratings · 324 reviews · 28 distinct works

	Letter to a Child Never Born 3.69 avg rating — 1,866 ratings — published 1975 — 9 editions	My rating:
	A Man 4.01 avg rating — 563 ratings — published 1979 — 24 editions	My rating:
	زندگی جنگ و دیگر هیچ by Oriana Fallaci, لیلی گلستان (Translator) 3.96 avg rating — 429 ratings — published 1969 — 13 editions	My rating:
	Interview with History 3.79 avg rating — 318 ratings — 10 editions	My rating:
	The Rage and The Pride 3.64 avg rating — 346 ratings — published 2001 — 4 editions	My rating:
	جنس ضعيف 3.68 avg rating — 214 ratings — published 1979 — 5 editions	My rating:
	گفت و گوهای اوریانا فالاچی by Oriana Fallaci, مترجم :غلامرضا امامی 3.49 avg rating — 209 ratings — published 2000 — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Force of Reason 3.70 avg rating — 176 ratings — published 2004 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Inshallah 3.99 avg rating — 117 ratings — published 1982 — 14 editions	My rating:
	If the Sun Dies 3.47 avg rating — 156 ratings — published 1965 — 7 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Oriana Fallaci

“Instead of learned young people we have donkeys with University degrees. Instead of future leaders we have mollusks with expensive blue jeans and phony revolutionaries with ski masks. And do you know what? Maybe this is another reason why our Moslem invaders have such an easy game.”
― Oriana Fallaci, The Rage and The Pride

tags: ignorance-jihad

5 people liked it

“La vita é una tale fatica, bambino. E una guerra che si ripete ogni giorno, e i suoi momenti di gioia sono parentesi brevi che si pagano un prezzo crudele.”
― Oriana Fallaci, Letter to a Child Never Born

tags: life

2 people liked it

“È la vita.
A volte credi che due occhi ti guardino e invece non ti vedono neanche. A volte credi d’aver trovato qualcuno che cercavi e invece non hai trovato nessuno. Succede. E se non succede è un miracolo. Ma i miracoli non durano mai”
― Oriana Fallaci

2 people liked it

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Oriana Fallaci

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