[1][2] Panni worked as a caretaker at the noble Barni family's palace, in which Negri spent much time alone, observing the passage of people as described in the autobiographical novel Stella Mattutina (1921).

[5][1] On 28 March 1896, she married industrialist Giovanni Garlanda of Biella,[6] who had fallen in love with Negri after reading her poetry.

She was a frequent visitor to Laglio on Lake Como,[7] where she wrote her only novel, an autobiographical work titled Stella Mattutina (Morning Star).

[8] Mussolini nominated Negri for a 1927 Nobel prize, but it was subsequently won by fellow Italian poet Grazia Deledda.

[9] During this period, Negri often stayed at Palazzo Cornazzani in Pavia, the same building Ugo Foscolo, Contardo Ferrini, and Albert Einstein inhabited at different points in history.

It is precisely woman’s maternal instinct, her 'stupendous and all-consuming' ability to mother a child, that prevents her from successfully giving birth to a fully realized literary work.

Her naturally lyrical soul knew, in the major parts of her works, how to transform with an imprint of originality the sufferings, the bitterness, the joys of an entire generation.

"[13] She was described as a writer who "abolished established conventions, and shaped her lyrics according to the rhythms of the heart, in sync to whatever it is that makes the winds blow, gives rise to the waters and pulse to the stars—a poetry infinitely free, capricious and precise.

"[14] Negri's initial acclaim within socialist circles earned her the name 'la vergine rossa' or 'the red maiden'.