Annunzio, Gabriele d', the pseudonym of the Italian poet Gaetano Rapagnetta, was born in 1864 on a boat in the Adriatic. Educated in a college at Prato and studied in Rome. He was elected, 1898, to the Italian Parliament. His first volume of verse, "Primavera," appeared in 1879, and was followed by "In Memoriam," "Canto Novo," "Intermezzo di Rime." His "Odi Novelli" reached their ninth edition in 1899. "Terra Vergine" appeared in 1882. His first novel, "Il Piacere," obtained ten editions. In drama he wrote "Il Sogno d'un Mattino di Primavera," "La Gioconda," "Francesca da Rimini," and "Piu che l'Amore." During the world war he served with distinction as a military aviator. In 1919, with a force of Italian volunteers, he seized and held Fiume in defiance of the Paris Peace Conference, which had awarded the city to Yugoslavia.

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