BORSI, GIOSUÈ. - Born in Livorno on 10 June 1888. He inherited his inclination for letters from his father Averardo, a writer and journalist.
His father’s renown secured him easy acceptance in the literary circles of his day. His life falls into two distinct periods, both spiritually and literarily. The first is marked by a restless, almost feverish search for a path in life and for expressive means in art: he feels the urgent need to define his own personality. The second period is characterized by the possession of this new path, which, in his eyes, appears to have been found by miracle, yet is arduous to traverse, accompanied as it is by a more or less spontaneous application of the new style. The transition from one period to the other seems, at least outwardly, to coincide with the onset of a series of family misfortunes and economic reversals befalling the Borsi household. Having returned to the truth and discipline of the faith, he poured into his writings the trepidations, joys, and even dejections of his new condition; his masterpiece, both morally and artistically, remains *L’Ultima lettera alla madre*, written from the front a few days before his death.
He was a poet, journalist, writer, as well as an exquisite reciter and a talented actor. Belonging to the first period are his poems, among which *Inno alla madre* stands out for its inspiration and form; his short stories (notably *Fiorrancino*, in which linguistic experimentation is evident, and *Vita di s. Cristoforo*, distinguished by incisive narrative elegance); and some dramatic compositions (*Il Diadestè*). At the dawn of the second period came *Le confessioni a Giulia*, followed by *Colloqui*, which met with the greatest acclaim.
He died in the assault on the low houses of Zagora on 10 November 1915; his blood stained his *Dantino*, a pocket edition of the *Divine Comedy* that Borsi always carried with him, now preserved in the family home in Florence, in Via Faenza.
His remains, interred at Plava in a cemetery along the Isonzo, were scattered after the retreat from Caporetto.