Histories, philosophy, biographies, directories, bibliographies, almanacs, catalogues, annuals, religious, educational, and travel literature
Title
Subject
Description
The release in 1921 of Alfredo Bosi’s Cinquant’anni di vita italiana in America, the first history of Italians in the United States, represented a watershed - the first 50 years of Italians in America - and allegedly arose from a conversation between journalist Bosi and King Vittorio Emanuele of Italy in 1901, in which the king expressed curiosity about the Italian colony in America.
Luigi Roversi’s biography of Palma di Cesnola proudly places that Italian within the august homes of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant America, into which di Cesnola had married, and where he ruled as the first director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
More than the first half of Flamma’s “biography” of the greatest mayor New York City had ever seen, Fiorello LaGuardia, has little to do with La Guardia, unfortunately, but the work did reflect his obvious pride that after electing mayors in 29 other cities, Italians “finally” elected (in 1933) a mayor of Italian heritage to the country’s most important city.
The directories discussed here, from New York to San Francisco, provide a particularly rich source of information about the different businesses and professions Italians had in virtually every state of the union, from as early as the 1880s (in San Francisco) to the first few decades of the 20th Century (primarily in New York).
Collection Items
Libreria S.F. Vanni: supplemento al catalogo generale [S.F. Vanni Bookstore: supplement to the general catalogue]. S.F.Vanni: New York, 1925.This 78-page "supplement" to the general catalogue is a lengthier version of virtually the same items, and types of items, for sale in the earlier,…
Libreria S.F. Vanni: - ultima novità e ristampe - supplemento al catalogo generale della Libreria S.F. Vanni [S. F. Vanni Bookstore: latest news and reprints- supplement to the general catalogue of the S.F. Vanni Bookstore]. New York: Libreria S.F. Vanni, 1924.Vanni's was the longest standing fixture of Italian books in New York, whether at 528 West Broadway (in the early 20th c., when it distributed and…
Libreria Sociale de "La Parola [del Popolo]" [Social Bookstore of "La Parola" [newspaper]]. Chicago: Italian Labor Publishing Co., [n.d.].This twice-folded single sheet 8-page catalogue of books contains works sold by the Social Bookstore attached to the newspaper La Parola del Popolo.…
Primo Maggio: bozzetto drammatico in un atto, con prologo in versi ed inno corale [May Day: dramatic sketch in one act, with prologue in verse and choral hymn]. Tipografia editrice C. Di Sciullo: Chieti [Italy], 1906.This work is important in and of itself as the exemplar of the kind of plays that socialists and anarchists staged during their celebrations of Primo…
Il liquorista universale: manuale contenente segreti e ricette per fare liquori, rosolii, sciroppi, vini artificiali, birra, acque rosoliate, olii, bevande, veleni, elisir, creme, tinture, vernici e veleni [The universal distiller: handbook containing secrets and recipes for making liquors, rosolios, syrups, artificial wines, beer, rosewater, oils, drinks, poisons, elixirs, creams, tinctures, varnishes and poisons [sic]]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, [1930s-1940s?].A collection of recipes for all kinds of liquors, this handbook also contains recipes for varnishes (or veneers) and insect poisons to kill bedbugs.…
Dalla Conca d'Oro al "Golden Gate": studii e impressioni di viaggi in America [From the Golden Valley to the "Golden Gate": studies and impressions of travels in America]. New York: Canorma Press, 1928. As noted in the entry for Nicotri's work on the history of revolution and revolt in Sicily, of Gaspare Nicotri, the New York Times obituary of October…
Errico Malatesta: Bibliografia. Napoli: Edizioni RI, 1951. Ugo Fedeli was one of Frank Brand's (Errico Arrigoni) comrades in a factory in Milan whom Arrigoni identifies as an anarchist-communist. He was a…
Solidarity: published on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of Local 563, Shoe Service Union, U.S.W. of A. AFL-CIO. Brooklyn: Shoe Service Union of US of A., AFL-CIO, [1958].Pages 1-29 of this memorial program for a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Shoe Service Union (part of the AFL-CIO) are in English; and…
Il diario di un emigrato. New York: Tipografia dell'Araldo Italiano, 1904.Camillo Cianfarra was one of the best Italian-language journalists in the U.S. A copy of this autobiography is extremely rare.Published in 1904, this…
Anni d'America. Lecce: Prem. Tipo-Litografia Prof. Vincenzo Masciullo, 1922.Forzato-Spezia, a formidable orator and thinker, used an Italian publisher for this account of her years in America, drawn from articles she had…
La Madonna del Carmine e gli Italiani d'America: storia del santuario della Madonna del Carmine 115.ma strada in [sic] New York City. New York: [n.p.], 1954.On the verso of the title page, there is a "nihil obstat" (nothing hinders [it from being published]) of the "censor librorum" (Censor of books), that…
D'Italia in California: Racconto di Ermolao Rubieri [From Italy to California: story of Ermolao Rubieri] [FACSIMILE]. Firenze: Stab. di Giuseppe Civelli, 1878.Rubieri (1818-1879) was an Italian politician, writer, poet, dramatist and patriot. In 1848-49, he was a volunteer in the first war of independence.…
Leonardo: Annual Magazine of the Leonardo Da Vinci Art School. New York: Leonardo da Vinci Publishing House, MCMXXV [1925].This is the only "annual" like this for this important school for working men and women - that is, there were night (as well as day) classes for those…
La stampa periodica Italiana all'estero [Facsimile]/ [The Italian periodical press abroad]. Milano: Il Comitato Ordinatore, 1909.Fumagalli's work on the Italian periodical press abroad is perhaps the most frequently cited of the late 19th/early 20th c. such works. This work is…
Gli Italiani negli Stati Uniti [The Italian American Experience]. New York: Arno Press, 1975.This is the Arno Press (New York Times) reprint of the original work (also in the collection, q.v.).This volume includes Pietro Russo's important and…
Sull'Oceano [On the Ocean]. Milano: Fratelli Treves, 1897. De Amicis (b. 1846 Oneglia (Liguria) - d. 1908 Bordighera, Italy) was a novelist, journalist, travel-writer, poet and short-story writer. In 1896,…
Diario di una piccola profuga friulana: episodi dell'invasione del Veneto, 1917 [Diary of a little Friulian refugee: episodes in the invasion of the Veneto, 1917]. New York: Il Carroccio, 1919.This "diario," with both dated and undated entries in November 1917 through the same month in 1918, is a memoir of Maria Luisa Francesconi, a refugee…
L'America ne' suoi primi fattori: la colonizzazione e l'emigrazione: Nuovi Orizzonti [America in its first factors: colonization and emigration: New Horizons]. Firenze: Tip. di G. Barbera, 1893.This work of activist (in Italy) Giuseppe Godio first presented as part of "new horizons" the idea here that sending Italians to live in less than…
Gabriele D'Annunzio: nella vita e nell'arte [Gabriele D'Annunzio: in Life and in Art]. New York: Cocce Bros., 1938.This is a lengthy essay by Riccardo Cordiferro on perhaps the then most celebrated political, journalistic and literary figure of Italy, who was also…
America: Primo Amore [America: First Love]. Milano: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1959.This is the fourth edition of this work, which is an account of the author's two years in America immediately following the stock market crash of…
Gli Italiani negli Stati Uniti: L'emigrazione e l'opera degli italiani negli Stati Uniti d'America Atti del III Symposium di Studi Americani Firenze, 27-29 Maggio 1969. Firenze: Istituto di Studi Americani Universita degli studi di Firenze, 1969.This is a fine early collection of essays by both Italian American and Italian scholars about the emigration and work of Italians in the U.S. The…
Perché la guerra in Africa [Why the War in Africa?]. New York: Casa ed. "Unità"/ Società ed. "L'Unità", [1935?]We can estimate the date of this work because the introduction begins from the vantage point of "21 years after the beginning of the last world war,"…
Voglio disturbare l'America: Lettere a Benedetto Croce e Giovanni Papini ed altro| A cura di Gabriel Cacho Millet [I Want to Trouble America: Letters to Benedetto Croce and Giovanni Papini, ed. by Gabriel Cacho Millet]. Firenze: La Casa Usher, 1980.The path the life of Carnevali (1897-1942) took was unlike that of any other Italian American of his era. Emigrating to the US in 1914, after odd…
L'ordine figli d'Italia in America. New York: Società Tipografica Italiana, 1925.We have some biographical details about Aquilano, a free-lance journalist, from Flamma's Italiani di America (b. Chieti, 1885; d. New York?). He…
Il libro dei santi. New York: Variety Bazaar & Italian Book, 1942.The front cover provides some bibliographic information in Italian, translated here as: “Printed exclusively for the newspaper L’Italia 1500 Stockton…
Comments