Luigi Barzini, Sr.
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Luigi Barzini sr (February 7, 1874 - September 6, 1947) was an Italian journalist, war correspondent and writer.
Born at Orvieto, Barzini started his career as a journalist in 1898, working for minor Italian magazines and was almost immediately noticed and hired by Luigi Albertini, then director of the Corriere della Sera, the most prestigious Italian newsaper. In 1900, he was sent as war correspondent to Qing Dynasty China, where he witnessed and reported about the Boxer Rebellion, distinguishing himself for his high sensitivity and ability to get first hand information and for his scoops.
As a journalist of the Corriere della Sera, in 1907 he accompanied Prince Scipione Borghese in the famous Peking to Paris motor race, winning it after a journey of months in an Itala car across China and Siberia, traveling amongst regions and people that had never seen a car before. Of this adventure, he left a wonderful memoir, filled of hundreds of photographs, in his book Peking to Paris, that was published in 1908 in eleven different languages: a "publishing raid", as his proud Italian editor noted in the preface of the book.
During World War I, Barzini was the official correspondent with the Italian Army; an account of his experiences was published in The War Illustrated. In the 1920s, Barzini left the Corriere della Sera and moved to the United States, where he directed the Italian-American newspaper Corriere d'America from 1923 to 1931. Returning to Italy, he was director of the Il Mattino and became a senator in 1934.
He died in Milan in 1947. His son, Luigi Barzini, Jr., was also a journalist and writer.
