Dante Arfelli: the forgotten writer whose debut sold a million copies

Dante Arfelli (1921-1995), an Italian author, is celebrated for his first novel "I superflui," released in 1949 by Rizzoli, which garnered the Premio Venezia and achieved over a million sales in the U.S. via Scribner's. He was born in Bertinoro, Romagna, and relocated to Cesenatico in 1935, where he attended the Liceo Classico in Rimini, encountering Federico Fellini. After completing his literature studies at the University of Bologna and serving in Montenegro, he graduated in 1944. He established a middle school and took on the role of teacher. His follow-up novel, "La quinta generazione" (1951), did not achieve similar acclaim. Later, due to Parkinson's disease, he withdrew from public life, publishing "Quando c'era la pineta" (1975) and "Ahimè, povero me" in the 1980s before passing away in 1995.