Ann Cornelisen is best known as the author of several books detailing the landscape and culture of southern Italy. She first went to Italy in 1954 with plans of studying archaeology in Rome. However, after meeting Giovanna "Gianna" Thompson, a representative of the British Save the Children Fund, the course of her life was forever changed. She traveled with Gianna to many small, impoverished towns in central and southern Italy documenting her experiences in her journals, letters home, and on film. She eventually made Ortona in the Abruzzo region her permanent home, but spent much of her time studying the town of Tricarico in Basilicata, which was the focus of her first book, Torregreca. Cornelisen spent the rest of her professional career in Italy and published three more nonfiction books about the country as well as two novels.

(from http://specialcollections.vassar.edu/...)