It is with sadness that I write to inform you of the passing of Joseph Tusiani. We lose a treasure of a man, a wonderful human being, and a great cultured individual!
Joseph came to the United States in 1947 on what was to be a temporary visit. Instead, he remained and became, over the more than seven decades he spent in New York, the polymath that he was. Poet first and foremost, prose writer, essayist, translator, Joseph was the true scholar/intellectual.
The winner of the prestigious Greenwood Prize of the Poetry Society of England in 1956, he was the first “American” to win the award. He was vice president of the Poetry Society of America, and Director of the Catholic Poetry Society of America. Joseph was also Professor of Italian for many years at Lehman College of The City University of New York.
Through his work as translator, he introduced many Italian writers to the English-speaking world: Machiavelli, Tasso, Pulci, Boccaccio, Pascoli, and Leopardi are just some of the writers he translated over the years. It was, in turn, his translations of Michelangelo’s poetry that earned him a visit to President Kennedy’s White House! That collection will be reissued in the University of Toronto Press’s Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library Series.
Joseph’s reach was extensive and impactful. In addition to his loving family (Michael, Bea, and their children), Joseph leaves behind a plethora of friends and former students whose lives were influenced to various degrees by his mentoring, friendship, and kindness. I feel privileged to have been among those to whom he opened his home, and along with the many things I shall remember and miss, there is also the Centerbe we would share during our conversations.
Once we are free of this terrible morass of the novel coronavirus, we shall commemorate Joseph in the manner in which he so deserves.
Un caloroso saluto.
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