Società Libraria Italiana: The Italian Book Company

Title

Società Libraria Italiana: The Italian Book Company

Collection Items

Raccolta di brindisi per ogni occasione in dialetto siciliano [Collection of toasts for every occasion in Sicilian dialect] [Facsimile]. New York: Societa Libraria Italiana - Italian Book Company, [1916].
With a publication date of 1916, this work appears to have preceded the enormously popular 1917 Raccolta di discorsi per ogni occasione; Brindisi ed augurii of Molinari and Cordiferro, q.v., which was a lengthy work (320 pages) containing speeches…

Raccolta di discorsi per ogni occasione; Brindisi ed augurii [Collected Speeches for Every Occasion; Toasts and Greetings]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, 1917.
The Collection boasts two quite different editions of this popular work (to judge from the high survival rate reflected in the frequent availability for purchase of this work).Copy 1: the New York printing, this edition: Each of these two not quite…

Nix il figlio dell'Austriaco [Nix, the Austrian's Son][Facsimile]. New York: Italian Book Company, 1920.
This is a complicated story of love and espionage behind the front line during the Great War, according to Durante.

La guerra italo-austriaca 1915-1919 [The Italian-Austrian War, 1915-1919]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, 1919.
Pallavicini (b. Torino (according to Flamma) or Milan (according to Schiavo) as Pallavicini-Pirovano, 1886; d. San Francisco, 1938) began his American writing career in New York, publishing this work with the Società Libraria Italiana, founded and…

Mastro Bertuchello e il tesoro dei ventimiglia [Master Bertuchello and the Treasure of the 20,000]. Milano: Casa ed. "La Madonnina" di Milano, 1950.
This is an Italian Book Company import: underneath the name of the Casa ed. "La Madonnina," the Milanese publisher on the cover, is the notice that the Italian Book Company is "the only custodian [for this work] in the United States of North…

John Huss the Veracious. New York: Italian Book Co., 1939.
The book opens with an adulatory preface by "Italian Book Co.," probably De Martino himself. This is one of the relatively few works published by the Italian Book Company in English, presumably to reach a wider audience of Italian American readers…

La regina Giovanna: emozionante romanzo storico napoletano [Queen Giovanna: stirring Neapolitan historical novel]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, [1911?]
A good example of an import by the Italian Book Company; the only OCLC copies are in Italian libraries. Book ads appear on the verso of the title page for the U.S.-produced Molinari/Cordiferro Raccolta di discorsi published by the Italian Book…

The Italian Cook Book: the Art of Eating Well. New York: Italian Book Co., 1919.
This is the rare Italian Book Company book in English (Mussolini's biography of Jan Hus is the other in the Collection).  This cook book - typical in some ways of IBC publications, mostly imported, about home and hearth -  is much sought after,…

Vita, gesta e amori di Salvatore Giuliano: compilata da U[mbeto] F[ragasso] [Life, Deeds and Loves of Salvatore Giuliano: compiled by U[mberto] F[ragasso].] New York: Italian Book Company, 1951.
This is the most recently dated imprint (1951) of the Italian Book Company in the collection. Giuliano (b. 1922, killed 1950) was the 20th c. Sicilian "gentleman bandit" who was the subject of Mario Puzo's The Sicilian. On the outside and inside rear…

Il bandito pugliese Nicola Morra, vita ed avventure, riordinate ed ampliate da A. De Martino [Nicola Morra: Bandit from Puglia. Life and adventures, reordered and expanded by A. De Martino] [Facsimile]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, 1914.
In 1896, Pasquale Ardito published in Italy Le avventure di Nicola Morra, ex bandito pugliese. There is no indication (at least in this facsimile) that De Martino, who takes credit here for having "reordered" or "rearranged" as well as "enlarged" the…

Tripoli italiana: La guerra italo-turca: le nostre prime vittorie- descrizioni ed appunti reordinati da Antonio De Martino [Italian Tripoli: the Italo-Turkish War: Our First Victories. Descriptions and notes reordered by Antonio De Martino]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, 1911.
In rooting for Italy’s colonialist ventures (as he would root years later for Mussolini), the publisher Antonio De Martino lost no time: a state of war, as is noted early on in this work, had only just been declared by Italy against Turkey on…

Casanova: memorie d'avventure amorose | scritte da lui stesso | e riordinate da | Franco Bello [Casanova: memoirs of amorous adventures]. New York: Italian Book Company, 1944.
The fascination of many with the “avventure amorose” of one of the great pleasure seekers and serial seducers (of the wives and daughters of important subjects of French King Louis XV) in European history apparently continued into the 1940s America…

L'assassinio della contessa Trigona: ovvero, il delitto del tenente Paternò, romanzo intimo-contemporaneo passionale, illustrated [The Assassination of the Contessa Trigona: or, The Crime of Lieutenant Paternò, Intimate-Contemporary Passionate Novel][Facsimile]. New York: Italian Book Company, 1912.
A real life story: Vincenzo Paternò del Cugno, a Sicilian baron who was always short on money, killed his lover, the Countess Giulia, in Rome in March 1911, when she refused to give him any more money and broke off their extra-marital relationship.…

Il libro delle erbe: medicinali e magiche di [A.DeM & UF] compilato su varie opere di botanica medica [Illustrated Herbarium. Medicines and Magic Potions Compiled on Various Works of Botanical Medicine]. New York: Italian Book Company, 1946.
This work fairly calls De Martino and Fragasso, both in subtitle and author listing, the "compilers" (from other sources) of the information rather than "authors." Here, as often, however, the cover (Erbario Figurato) doesn't match the title page.…

Rodolfo Valentino: avventure amorose [Rodolfo Valentino: amorous adventures]. New York: Italian Book Company, 1944.
Published in the same year as the autobiography of Casanova, q.v., the advertisement for this work (on the back cover of the Casanova) noted not only "i suoi trionfi, i suoi amori" (his triumphs and his love affairs) but also "la sua tragica fine"…

L'assassinio della contessa Trigona: ovvero, il delitto del tenente Paternò, contemporaneo romanzo intimo-passionale [The Assassination of the Contessa Trigona: or, The Crime of Lieutenant Paternò, Contemporary Intimate-Passionate Novel]. New York: Italian Book Co., 1944.
See the entry for the 1912 facsimile copy of the original of this work for the full story of Vincenzo Paternò del Cugno, a Sicilian baron who killed his married lover, the Countess Giulia, in Rome in March 1911, when she refused to give him any more…

La trovatella di Mulberry Street [The Foundling of Mulberry Street]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, 1919.
Ciambelli (b. Lucca, 1862; d. New York, 1931) was the most celebrated and prodigious novelist — as many as eight novels of his were in print and for sale at the bookstore of Il Progresso Italo-Americano (advertisement, July 5, 1896) — as well as…
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