"One of the dearest Authors of Ours". Virginia Woolf nell’Archivio Storico Mondadori: una lettura inedita

By way of an extensive examination of documents in the Arnoldo Mondadori Editore Archives, preserved by the Fondazione Mondadori in Milan, Virginia Woolf ’s eventful publishing career in Italy is retraced and her presence is reviewed from a privileged perspective: her Italian publisher’s letters and memos. These documents throw light on the editorial and political vicissitudes of post-war Italy until the 1960s, when Alberto Mondadori created his own imprint, il Saggiatore. The intellectuals playing a role in this history are many: Emilio Cecchi, whom Alberto chose as the editor of Woolf’s works, Anna Banti, Fernanda Pivano, Elio Vittorini, and others.Thanks to these documents a new and unexpected reading of Woolf emerges. Her reception and translation chez Mondadori was not influenced, as elsewhere in Europe, by her feminist themes. She was appreciated mainly for her style and for the perfection of her writing.