[1] Born in Florence, Pratolini worked at various jobs before entering the literary world thanks to his acquaintance with Elio Vittorini.

After the war he also worked in the cinema, collaborating as screenwriter to films such as Luchino Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers , Roberto Rossellini's Paisan and Nanni Loy's [The Four Days of Naples.

In 1954 and 1961 Valerio Zurlini turned two of his novels, Le ragazze di San Frediano and Cronaca familiare, into films.

The Soviet composer Kirill Molchanov produced the Russian-language opera Via del Corno (Улица дель Корно) based on an anti-fascist story by Pratolini, to his own Russian libretto in Moscow, 1960.

His most important literary works are the novels Cronaca familiare (1947), Cronache di poveri amanti (1947) and Metello (1955).