Oriana Fallaci

Spent the last years of her life in New York fighting against breast cancer, but decided to die in her native Florence (September 2006).

Wrote a series of critical and controversial books about Islam and Arab culture, most notably "La rabbia e l'orgoglio" (The Rage and The Pride, 2001).

During her infamous 1972 interview with Henry Kissinger, she got him to agree that the Vietnam War was a "useless war" and compare himself to "the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse." Kissinger later wrote that it was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press."

Twice received the St. Vincent Prize for journalism, as well as the Bancarella Prize in 1971 and the Viareggio Prize in 1979. She received a D.Litt. from Columbia College in Chicago. She lectured at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Harvard University, and Columbia University. Her early writings have been translated into 21 languages.

Prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics, she was shot three times by Mexican armed forces, but managed to survive.

Went to Hollywood in her early 20s, where she wrote about stars such as Clark Gable. She published her first book in 1954, "The Seven Sins of Hollywood." Orson Welles, who had become a friend, wrote the preface.

She was a writer, known for Teatr Telewizji (1953), El grito (1968) and Riderà! (Cuore matto) (1967).

Fallaci began her journalistic career in her teens, becoming a special correspondent for an Italian newspaper in 1950. Starting in 1967, she worked as a war correspondent in Vietnam, the Middle East, and in South America. For many years, Fallaci was a special correspondent for the political magazine L'Europeo, and wrote for a number of leading newspapers and magazines.

Oriana Fallaci was born on June 29, 1929 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.