Padre Padrone: The Education of a Shepherd [first edition]

Gavino Ledda (born 1938) is an author and scholar of the Italian & Sardinian languages. He is best known for this autobiographical work "Padre Padrone". Ledda was born in Sardinia, into a poor family of shepherds. Gavino's father made him leave school at the age of six. Ledda's father gradually introduced him to life as a herder, however his father's teachings were always given with a certain amount of brutality, and were often accompanied by beatings. Ledda spent the rest of his childhood & adolescence working under his father in a state of substantial slavery. Ledda's emancipation from his "padre padrone" (which translates into English as "My Father, My Master") began towards the end of his adolescence when his father allowed him to take his elementary school exams.Ledda began to develop a passion for learning and a dogged determination to free himself from his life as a poor, illiterate shepherd trapped in a backward environment. He joined the army in 1958 becoming a Sergeant. In 1962, he left the army and returned to Sardinia to continue his studies. This was frowned on by his father and by others in Siligo, who thought that he was overconfident & too ambitious for a boy of his social class. Nevertheless, he succeeded in passing his middle school exams in 1962. In spite of this success, or maybe because of it, the cruel attitude of the people of Siligo towards Ledda continued. Eventually, Ledda defied his father openly, claiming his independence. He told his father his world vision, his ideals and his plans, & explained why he no longer wished to be subject to his father's oppression. Ledda obtained a high school diploma in 1964 and a college degree in Linguistics in 1969. In 1971 he was nominated assistant professor in Cagliari, Sardinia. This book was published in 1975 & won the Premio Viareggio. It was translated into 40 languages & in 1977 was filmed for Italian television and won the Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival.