Born in Sicily, Sciascia was a literary and critical genius as well as a best-selling activist-writer. In the tradition of such Sicilian writers as Luigi Pirandello and Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, he explored in neorealist novels the island's impact on its inhabitants' lives: how they coped with crime, the Mafia, and corruption. His best-known works include The Day of the Owl, The Sicilian Relatives, and the collection of short stories The Wine-Dark Sea. In his most controversial work, The Moro Affair, he implicated Italy's leaders in the 1978 kidnapping and murder of former premier Aldo Moro by the leftist terrorist group, the Red Brigade. Though a long-time Communist, Sciascia eventually left… the party to become a member of the Radical party, whose tenets were closer to his own anarchist leanings. As a representative of the party, Sciascia was elected to both the Italian and European Parliaments.
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa was a Sicilian nobleman, Duke of Parma and Prince of Lampedusa. He was born in Palermo in 1896 and died in Rome in 1957. He lived the life of a literary dilettante, was familiar with the great literatures of the world, and was widely travelled. Much of Lampedusa's other work is collected in The Siren and Other Writings (Harvill).
Anthony Oliver has worked in machine vision and robotics for 5 years with Big 3 automakers and other large manufacturers. He has written articles for Vision and Sensor Magazine, The online magazine H+, and given talks at Ignite Automotive and machine vision conferences.