The "Mendicanti" series, some of which were displayed at the "Lyceum" in Florence in 1943, were considered to be against the regime warlike propaganda. Quinto Martini was jailed shortly after the exhibition, together with Carlo Levi, in the same prison where his brother had been kept for almost fifteen years. Once released, the artist went into hiding in the Chianti countryside to avoid being captured by the Nazis. In that period he wrote the novel "I giorni sono lunghi" (The Days Are Long) to render that experience memorable, which was published in 1957 with a preface from Levi himself. Intimate reflections expressed in verses, opened Martini's road to poetry. Across the '50s and '60s, Quinto Martini published some tales and poems for the "Nuovo Corriere" of Firenze, while many more remain still unpublished. In 1974, his second novel "Chi ha paura va alla guerra" is printed in Catanzaro for the Frama's Publisher edited by Pasquino Crupi, where Quinto Martini tells the story of a deserter during the First World War.