Editing Giovannino Guareschi (section)

==Life and career==
Guareschi was born into a middle-class family in [[Roccabianca|Fontanelle di Roccabianca]], in the [[province of Parma]], in 1908.<ref name="pdom">{{cite book|author1=Roy P. Domenico|author2=Mark Y. Hanley|title=Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8ZixRcQfV8C&pg=PA260|access-date=24 July 2015|date=1 January 2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32362-1|page=260}}</ref> He always joked about the fact that he, a big man, was baptized Giovannino, a name meaning "little John" or "Johnny". In 1926, his family went bankrupt and he could not continue his studies at the [[University of Parma]]. After working at various minor jobs, he started to write for a local newspaper, the ''[[Gazzetta di Parma]]''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Don Camillo|url=http://www.easyreaders.eu/books/don-camillo-.aspx?tab=1|access-date=21 May 2016|work=Easy Readers}}</ref> In 1929, he became editor of the satirical magazine ''Corriere Emiliano'', and from 1936 to 1943 was the chief editor of a similar magazine called ''[[Bertoldo]]''.<ref name="pdom" />

In 1943, Guareschi was drafted into the army, which apparently helped him to avoid trouble with the [[Italian Fascist]] authorities.<ref name="pdom" /> He ended up as an [[artillery]] officer. When Italy signed the [[armistice of Cassibile]] with the Allies in 1943, he was arrested as an [[Italian military internee]] and imprisoned with other Italian soldiers in camps in [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|German-occupied Poland]] for almost two years, including at [[Stalag X-B]] near [[Sandbostel]]. He later wrote about this period in ''Diario Clandestino'' (''My Secret Diary'').

[[File:Giovannino Guareschi nel 1945 (2).jpg|thumb|left|Guareschi in 1945]]
After the war, Guareschi returned to Italy and in 1945 founded a [[monarchist]] weekly satirical magazine, ''[[Candido (magazine)|Candido]]''.<ref name=pdom/> After Italy became a republic, he supported the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]] party. He criticized and satirized the [[Italian Communist Party]] in his magazine, famously drawing a Communist as a man with an extra [[nostril]], and coining a slogan that became very popular: "Inside the voting booth God can see you, Stalin can't." When the Communists were defeated in the [[1948 Italian general election]], Guareschi did not put his pen down but also criticized the Christian Democracy party.

In 1950, ''Candido'' published a satirical cartoon by Carlo Manzoni poking fun at [[Luigi Einaudi]], the then president of the Republic. The President is at the Quirinal Palace, surrounded by, instead of the presidential guard of honour (the ''[[Cuirassiers Regiment (Italy)|corazzieri]]''), giant bottles of [[Nebbiolo]] wine, which Einaudi actually produced on his land in Dogliani. Each bottle was labeled with the institutional logo. The cartoon was judged "in contempt of the President" by a court at the time. Guareschi, as the director of the magazine, was held responsible and sentenced.

In 1954, Guareschi was charged with [[libel]] after he published two facsimile wartime letters from resistance leader and former Prime Minister [[Alcide De Gasperi]] requesting that the [[Allies of World War II]] bomb the outskirts of [[Rome]] in order to demoralize Nazi German collaborators. The legitimacy of the letters was never established by the court; after a two-month trial, it found in favour of De Gasperi. Guareschi declined to appeal the verdict and spent 409 days in [[Parma]]'s San Francesco jail, and another six months on probation at his home.<ref>Perry, 19-20</ref>

His most famous comic creations are his short stories, begun in the late 1940s, about the rivalry between [[Don Camillo]], a stalwart Italian priest, and the equally hot-headed Peppone, Communist mayor of a [[Po River]] Valley village in the "Little World". These stories were dramatized on radio, television and in films, most notably in the series of films featuring [[Fernandel]] as Don Camillo.

By 1956, Guareschi's health had deteriorated and he began spending time in [[Switzerland]] for treatment. In 1957, he retired as editor of ''Candido'' but remained a contributor. He died in [[Cervia]] in 1968 of a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] at the age of 60.