Browse Items (82 total)
- Collection: Histories, philosophy, biographies, directories, almanacs, annuals, religious, educational, and travel literature
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Luigi Palma di Cesnola e il Metropolitan Museum of Art di New York [Luigi Palma di Cesnola and the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York]. New York: [n.p.], 1898.
This copy, with an inscription to “the most noble Madam Contessa Valdrighi” dated June 7, 1899, is a hagiography of the Torinese count, Palma di Cesnola, who arrived in America penniless (but of noble birth). Though impoverished, he learned English…
La Russia in fiamme [Russia in Flames]. New York: Casa Editrice "I Giovani", 1919.
The subject of La Russia in fiamme is one Vacirca knew well from his interviews (while a senator in Italy) with Lenin and Trotsky: the Russian Revolution, from its inception in 1917. The first few pages feature quotations in French (Romain Rolland)…
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," which was 1914; thus, it is 1935.Among the advertisements on the recto of the last leaf is that of…
1905 Italian American Directory: Guida generale per il commercio Italo Americano [General guide for the Italian American trade]. New York: Italian American Directory Co., 1905.
Attempting to fill the same need that American city directories had long performed, this Italian American directory is notable for its national (and international) scope. It leaves no possible advertising space unused, with a lively multicolored…
Le mie prigioni; adapted for English schools [My Prisons]. London: Librairie Hachette, 1884.
This is Silvio Pellico's much reprinted memoirs of his 10 years imprisonment in the Hapsburg's prison in Spielberg for advocating for the freedom of Italy from Bourbon rule. There in prison he met several Italians who became refugees to the U.S.,…
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 Street, San Francisco, Cal.” This information is not on the title page.This is the rare publication…
Storia della Sicilia Antica [History of Old Sicily]. New York: Divagando Corporation, 1955.
This work was illustrated by John Abys, who also, as Giovanni Abys, illustrated both the 1912 original and the 1944 reissue of L'Assassinio della Contessa Trigona, q.v.The Divagando Corporation was presumably the publisher also of the more well known…
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 essays arise from a symposium of American studies at Florence in May 1969, very soon after the beginning…
Commenti di scrittori italiani sul "Nuovo Ordine Universale": 13 lettere al presidente degli Stati Uniti in due opscoli di un interprete del popolo, coordinato e tradotto in inglese da Rodolfo Pucelli [Comments of Italian Writers on the "New Universal Order": 13 letters to the President of the United States of America in two pamphlets by an interpreter of the people, coordinated and translated into English by Rodolfo Pucelli]. New York: Coccè Press, 1950.
This bilingual work - first 32 pages in English, the same repeated in Italian on pages 33-64 - follows upon Pucelli's English translation of the noted pamphlet by August Lovece, the so-called Interpreter of the People, in which were published letters…
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 known for the torrid love affair he carried on with actress Eleonora Duse. D’Annunzio had a…
Memorandum coloniale ossia sintesi storica di osservazioni e fatti che diano un'idea generale della vita coloniale degli italiani nel Nord America con monografia illustrativa della colonia di Philadelphia [Colonial Memorandum, or Historical Synthesis of Observations & facts which give a general idea of the colonial life of Italians in North America with an illustrated monograph of the colony of Philadelphia]. Philadelphia: "La Forbice", 1911.
This is stated to be second volume; no copy of this second volume found in any library. The first volume was published by "Mastro Paolo" in 1910-1912, copies of which are in the Rutgers & U. of Michigan libraries. On rear cover, notice that "Il…
La strada della gioia [The Road to Joy]. New York: Liberal Press, Inc., 1946.
This work, with a cover illustration by W. Vercellino, is a series of philosophical essays, apparently all written by Pietro Novasio, about the “art of life,” with barely a page gone by before the writer invokes Schopenhauer, Emerson, Vico,…
Dal Convento al Matrimonio ovvero il destino dei poveri [From the Convent to Matrimony: or the destiny of the poor]. New York: Eloquent Press Corp. - N. Morgillo, [1949].
Ribet dedicates the work to her son Joseph, who appears to have been killed in World War II. Her goal is to help those who, in encouraging or allowing their children to become nuns (or priests), pretend that their children are following a "vocation"…
Poeti Calabresi in America [Calabrese Poets in America]. Bergamo: La Nuova Italia Letteraria, 1957.
ALthough published in Bergamo, the author's introduction is dated New Kensington, PA, May 12, 1956. Calabrese poets whose undated work is included in this post-war anthology include those as early as Riccardo Cordiferro and his father, Francesco…
Storia delle Missioni Francescane in California con illustrazioni [History of the Franciscan Missions in California, with illustrations]. San Francisco: Tipo. Castagno, Bright & Gold, 1915.
This is an illustrated and robust history written by a priest of the 21 Franciscan missions in California founded between 1769 and 1823. The publishers are listed at the same location (440 Sansome St. in San Francisco) in the 1915 Writings on…
Un viaggio nell' America del Nord [A Trip in North America]. Torino: Uff. Delle Let. Cattoliche, 1906.
The author is Padre Laurenti, "di C. di G.", which I believe means Laurenti was a Jesuit (the "Compagnia di Gesu" or Society of Jesus). His interest in North America, and a focus of his travels in this report, is the spread of the Catholic religion…
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 who had other daytime jobs. Connections to writers in the Collection are many: e.g., the…
Andrea Ragusa: editore-libraio italiano a New York dal 1931 al 1974 [Andrea Ragusa: publisher/bookseller in New York from 1931 to 1974]. Firenze: Ed. Polistampa, 2004.
Introduction by Paolo Bagnoli; this copy has a label stuck on back cover: S.F. Vanni-Publishers & Booksellers, 30 W 12 St., NYC. Author Ragusa was professor of Italian at Columbia University for most of her career, linked to the Casa Italiana at…
Berneri in Ispagna [Berneri in Spain]. Newark: Biblioteca de L'Adunata dei Refrattari, 1937.
Deported to Italy from the U.S. in 1919 with his leader, Luigi Galleani, author Schiavina returned illegally to the U.S. in 1928 using the name Max Sartin, editing L'Adunata dei Refrattari under that name until its demise in 1971. (Schiavina died in…
Errico Malatesta. New York: Casa ed. "Il Martello", [1922].
Nettlau (b. Neuwaldegg [Vienna], 1865; d. Amsterdam, 1944) was a German anarchist - indeed, according to Paul Avrich, Nettlau was the foremost historian of anarchism - who met Malatesta in London, and remained friends for the rest of their lives.…
Con la patria nel cuore: la mia propaganda fra gli emigranti [With the Fatherland in my Heart: My Propagandizing among the Immigrants]. Palermo: Casa ed. D'Antoni, 1925.
Francesco Durante refers to Teresi (b. Alia (Palermo), Italy 1875 - d. Rochester, NY 1971) as an Italian-American intellectual. He came to the U.S. in 1907, earned a law degree here, and became a bank teller in Rochester. He wrote the preface to…
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 1929, when he taught at Columbia University. It was first published in 1935 by Bemporad (Florence), and…
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 from Friuli to the U.S. Her travails within Italy by train to escape aerial bombardment of the…
Gli Stati Uniti d'America: l'emigrazione italiana [The United States of America: Italian Emigration]. Milano: Fratelli Treves, Ed., 1912.
Despite a title that suggests that the book is principally about Italian immigration to the U.S., in fact two thirds of the book is about the US generally (including some chapters about other immigrant groups). Only about one third is about Italian…
Pionieri ed eroi della storia americana [Pioneers and Heroes of American History]. New York: Frugone, Balletto & Pellegatti Printing & Publishing Co., 1907.
Dedicated to Melville Knox Bailey, founder & president of "Italo-American Educational League." Perhaps reflecting how early in the period of the Great Migration he was writing, Cavallaro’s work is not about Italians, but rather sets forth the…