Riccardo Cordiferro

Pseudonym of Alessandro Sisca, an Italian-born American journalist, playwright, poet, lyricist, and socialist activist (born at San Pietro in Guarano, Cosenza, Italy on October 27, 1875 - died on August 24, 1940 in New York, NY, USA). After a brief stint in a Franciscan seminary, Sisca decided against the monastic life. He adopted the pen name Riccardo Cordiferro ("Heart of Iron") and published an early book of poetry in Naples. In 1892, he emigrated to the United States, living first with an uncle in Pittsburgh, then settling in New York City. There, he, his father, and his brother, Marziale, founded a literary weekly, "La Follia" ("Folly") in 1893. He also wrote and staged a number of popular plays dealing with the Italian immigrant experience, including "L'Onore Perduto" ("Lost Honor," 1901). Nowadays, Cordiferro is most famous as the author of the verses of "Core 'Ngrato" ("Ungrateful Heart," 1911), one of the cornerstones of Neapolitan song.