Wingless Victory - A Biography of Gabriele d'Annunzio and Eleonora Duse

by Frances Winwar

"Wingless Victory" is the story of two world-famous creatures of genius and Gabriele d'Annunzio, "the faun of the Abruzzi," poet, novelist, playwright, amorist and wildly worshiped military hero - and Eleonora Duse, the incomparable actress, whose art inspired some of the greatest dramatists of her time and enchanted the people of three continents. In telling the stories of this extraordinary pair, Frances Winwar has succeeded in creating a setting almost as brilliant as her two stars. The world in which d'Annunzio and Duse moved was a world of remarkable men and women. The people they talked and dined and quarreled with, the people they wrote letters to and borrowed money from were the great creative figures of late 19th century Debussy, Sudermann, Bernhardt, Romain Rolland, Isadora Duncan among them - persons whose ambitions, rivalries and partisan battles enrich the fabric of the entire narrative. It is Miss Winwar's triumph that the reader not only becomes an intimate of d'Annunzio and Duse but also moves as a familiar among the glittering company of their friends.

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 1974

About the author

Frances Winwar (née Francesca Vinciguerra; 3 May 1900 – 24 July 1985), was a Sicilian-born American biographer, translator, fiction writer and antifascist activist.

Winwar was born Francesca Vinciguerra in Taormina, Sicily and came to the United States through Ellis Island in June 1907. Her pseudonym Winwar is an Anglicization of her birth name; she was required to change her name as a condition of publishing her first book. She was the daughter of Domenico Vinciguerra and the singer Giovanna Sciglio and after emigrating to the United States the family settled in New York. Winwar studied at Hunter College and Columbia University.

Winwar started her career at The Masses magazine at the age of 18. Following the publication of an essay in The Freeman in 1923 she worked for the magazine and did further work for the New York Times, New Republic and the Saturday Review of Literature.

Winwar is best known for her series of romanticized biographies of nineteenth century English writers. She was also a frequent translator of classic Italian works into English and published several romantic novels set during historical events.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Winwar was an outspoken opponent of Italian Fascism.

Winwar died in New York in 1985.[3]