ON THE morning of December 10, 1936, Italy lost its most famous dramatist and novelist, Luigi Pirandello. That funereal day rests heavily on the 1936 season, for this distinguished Sicilian, recipient of the Nobel Prize, was truly an international figure; his creation, a compound of wit, philosophy, and poetry, passed from the regional to the universal almost at its inceptive stage. He died of pneumonia. His last wish, according to his friends, was for a pauper's hearse to take his body to its last destination. This wish was consonant with his paradoxical cynicism: never sure in life of a definable identity, why not carry to the grave this sense of anonymity? It would be fitting to say, in passing, that despite vigorous opposition to his dramatic formulae and philosophic intent, Pirandello took his place long ago as the leading dramatist in contemporary drama. His dramatic formula could be summarized briefly by saying that man, the protagonist, is the victim of delusory happenings in his life which distort his character at every turn: in short, he is the marionette ever in quest of his self-identity. This puppet, philosophically speaking, is in a fluid state, never fixed, never tangible. Man, according to Pirandello, is without definition, for exterior forces in life and the conventions of his fellow-creatures render him stranger to himself than to his neighbor. Pirandello has throughout his literary career been juggling with the problem of reality. In his plays, short stories, essays, poems, and novels the question 'What is reality?' is an ever-recurrent theme. In his plays he gave vigorous expression to a despairing outlook on life. Despite concentration on metaphysical problems, Signor Pirandello's plays are frequently sprinkled with brilliant wit. His comedies and other dramas reveal his ability to vitalize philosophical questions through the medium of characters which are intensely alive. Their conversations are always marked by sensibility and wit. His plea throughout his literary works is for tolerance and compassion for tormented I am criticized for intruding the element of doubt into life, he said, let me inquire if it is not better to question than to accept what causes suffering. Who can say, with surety, what is false or true, what is illusion and what reality? If I destroy conventional standards it is to reveal the tragedy and the despair they may conceal. Any force that will make people think, that will make them weigh values, that will cause them to recognize the rights of others, that will make them tolerant, is important. And the power of the dramatist is greater than that of the politician. Other playwrights will call attention to social injustices and political corruption. I follow the philosophical and ethical hope of helping the individual and so the whole of humanity.