Piero Chiara was born in Luino on the 23rd of March 1913. After having studied irregularly and with scarce profit, at the end of the 1920's the young Chiara left Luino and began a sort of 'life's apprenticeship'. First he went to Milan and then he travelled in France: Lyon, Nice and Paris. During these years he began reading authors which were to become his favourites: Boccaccio, Manzoni, Beaudelaire and Dostoevsky.
In 1931, on having returned to Luino, he began studying again and obtained his school-leaving certificate. He then obtained a post in the judiciary administration and began work at the magistrate's court. He spent much of the extensive free time allowed by his job at caf‚s, playing billiards and cards and reading. He also had many love affairs.
He was called up in 1940 but was discharged from the army only a few months later. On having returned to Varese he fled to Switzerland at the beginning of 1944 to avoid the arrest decreed by the Special Court for his anti-Fascist feelings. On returning to Italy at the end of 1945 he published the collection of poems entitled Incantavi , soon followed by two books of prose. Animated by a sensual passion for life and for sexual adventure, from these he obtained material and inspiration for his works.
The first important recognition of his work as a narrative writer took place in 1962 with Il piatto piange, a novel based on the story of card games and amorous adventures of a group of gamblers in Luino during the fascist period, a setting common to other works by him.
This was followed by La spartizione of 1964, the story of a public employee who has 'his hands full' with three nubile sisters from Luino: not very attractive but well-off, morbidly religious, who will make sex the instrument for overpowering the protagonist.
During the years which followed he published: Con la faccia per terra (1965); Il balordo (1967); L'uovo al cianuro e altri racconti (1969) in which one perhaps finds his best stories; I giovedì della signora Giulia (1970); Il pretore di Cuvio (1973); Sotto la sua mano (1974); and La stanza del Vescovo (1976) in which he narrates the adventures of a navigator on the Lake Maggiore, by some considered the 'passing point' from the dimension of the story - which up until then had seemed to be his most congenial form - to that of the novel.
His bibliography of the following years include: Il cappotto di astrakan (1978); Una spina nel cuore (1979); Vedrò Singapore? (1981); Viva Migliavacca e altri 12 racconti (1982); and Il capostazione di Casalino e altri 15 racconti (1986).
In 1978 he published a biography of Gabriele D'Annunzio. He also supervised the publication of the works by Giacomo Casanova.
Piero Chiara was a writer whose references were erudite, who possessed considerable ability in telling stories and in interweaving the plots of the stories and vicissitudes of his characters. He offered a picture of the vital Lombard province, investigating its least evident aspects, be these tragic or comical. This factor, together with his flowing and enjoyable style made his books unquestionably successful with the reading public.
A number of successful films have also been based on his novels, amongst which: Venga a prendere il caffè da noi of 1971, directed by Alberto Lattuada and based on La spartizione; and La stanza del Vescovo of 1977, directed by Dino Risi.
Piero Chiara died in Varese on the 31st of December 1986.
The Piero Chiara Literary Award is dedicated to him, organized since 1989 by the Commune of Varese.