Lydia Ugolini

Lydia Ugolini (May 3, 1915 - February 18, 1999) was an Italian author born in Florence, Italy. She published five children's novels.
Biography
Lydia Ugolini was the eldest daughter of seven children born to Florentine writer Luigi Ugolini.
She married Gino Pavanello, a nationally recognized photographer who had served with the Istituo LUCE during World War II. During the marriage, Ugolini lived in Turin and traveled with Pavanello, often to the Alps and mountains of Trieste. After five years of marriage, she was widowed in 1964 when she lost her husband to illness, and never remarried. They had no children.
She returned to live with her parents in Florence, where she devotedly cared for her father and his literary work for more than 20 years, until his death in 1980. Her father formally appointed her executrix of his literary and personal estate.
She continued to live and write in the residence in Florence, keeping her parent's room and belongings intact for nearly two more decades until her death in 1999. She willed her entire estate to Vanna Bonta, the daughter of her younger sister, fine arts painter Maria Luisa Ugolini. The transference included the executorship of the Luigi Ugolini literary estate.
Her body is interred in the Porte Sante (Holy Doors) cemetery at the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte, Florence.
Family home
The Ugolini in Florence, Italy is listed in the city registry as a national monument. On December 11, 1993, a dedication ceremony by the Commune of Florence affixed a marble plaque to the Ugolini home, commemorating the years her father wrote there, declaring the house a national monument.
Work
Ugolini published five children's novels and was a popular contributor to Italy's leading magazine for children, Il Corriere Dei Piccoli, La Nazione and other leading publications for many years.
The Italian National School Board unanimously voted Ugolini's Story of a Rich Dog and a Poor Dog a favorite. The story was selected for theater production in all Italian elementary schools.
She was active in Florentine literary circles and was a council member of the Florentine Chamber of Poets in the tradition of the Florentine Camerata. Among her colleagues and contemporaries were poets Margherita Guidacci and Mario Luzi, and painters Pietro Annigoni and Luciano Guarnieri. During the 1970s until her death, she lectured at literary presentations and schools.
Lydia Ugolini was recognized by the world of education as well as literature. Her novels are required reading selections in elementary school curricula. Her signature style was a blend of entertaining wisdom about life, ecology and timeless values in stories where she used the wonders of nature as metaphors. Ugolini often drew inspiration for her novels from the life of animals.
Published works
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