Browse Items (84 total)
- Collection: Imaginative literature of the great migration: Fiction, poetry, drama, music, and art in books, magazines, and other works on paper
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Alberi e casolari [Trees and Barns]. New York: Edizione in esilio, 1943.
Ezio Taddei (b. Livorno, 1895; d. Rome, 1956) was involved in Italian politics at an early age: at thirteen he was arrested for involvement in a demonstration connected with a nurses’ strike in a Roman hospital. When released from prison, he found…
C'è posta per voi, Mr. Brown! [There's Mail for You, Mr. Brown!]. Roma: Ed. Di Cultura Sociale, 1953.
Taddei published many works in the U.S. during the fascist era, when it would have been impossible to do so in Italy. Once the war was over, as is the case at the time of publication of this work, Taddei published in his native Italy.Ezio Taddei (b.…
Caricatures in four parts | Caricature in quattro parti. New York: La Follia di New York - Marziale Sisca, 1908.
This is the rare first edition of a series of editions of this popular collection of caricatures drawn by the great Neapolitan tenor, Enrico Caruso (b. Naples, 1873; d. Naples, 1921). La Follia di New York published Caruso’s caricatures in individual…
Faville [Sparks]. New York: Italian Book Co. 1922
This sheet music appears to be an import from Naples (though Naples is mentioned specifically only as the source of a recording on disk of the song), and distributed in New York by the Italian Book Company. As I have noted elsewhere, this arrangement…
Fiamme: dramma in un atto; Memorie di un suicido: novella [Flames: Drama in One Act. Recollections of a Suicide]. New York: Nicoletti Bros. Editori, 1911.
Some years after Dramas, Flamma succeeded in getting Fiamme translated and published in English as Flames & Other Plays (New York, 1928). This volume consists of two works: the popular first-named play, originally written, performed, and…
Il mio primo maestro: poemetto di Onorio Ruotolo [My First Master: a short poem of Onorio Ruotolo]. New York: La Lucerna, 1948.
Inscribed in 1951 on the verso of the title page by Ruotolo "al caro amico Hugo Rolland...[to {my} dear friend Hugo Rolland . . . " This is copy no. 110 of this "edizione limitata di 500 copie numerate [edition limitated to 500 numbered…
Il Presidente Scoppetta, ovvero La Società della Madonna della Pace [President Scoppetta, or The Society of Our Lady of Peace (from its founding to its dissolution)]. Philadelphia: [n.p.], 1927.
This parody by Seneca (b. Benevento, 1890 - d. Philadelphia, 1952), a professor of languages at the University of Pennsylvania, reflects the bitter laugh of early Italian American comedy. It is filled with a corrupted version of dialect, along with…
L'urto di due mondi: poemetto [The Collision of Two Worlds: a short poem]. [n.p.]: [n.p.], 1938.
Stamped on the title page - bare of any printed text except "L'Urto di due mondi" without "poemetto" much less author Zavattero's name - is "Libreria SOCIALE Italiana, Giuseppe Popolizio E Co., 232 East 123rd ST., New York, N.Y." That the bookstore…
La leggenda del Piave [The Legend of the Piave]. New York: Italian Book Company, 1918.
Note the copyright by the Italian Book Company both on the cover and at the bottom of the first page of this sheet music: "Copyright 1918 by the Italian Book Co. 145-147 Mulberry Street - New-York| This copy can be imported in the United States only…
Le canzoni de l'ora [Songs of the Hour]. New York: Edizioni Sirena, 1945.
On who Federico Mennella was, see discussion under Rapsodia Napoletana. This dialect poem is in the same vein as that work.
Lu ciucciu. Poema in dialetto calabrese [The Donkey: poem in Calabrese dialect]. New York: Tipografia Sisca & Sons, 1913.
The only known book-length publication of Alessandro and Marziale Sisca's father, Francesco Sisca, or of the publisher or printer that bore their family name, this poem was a “bilingual” collaboration — Calabrian dialect by the father, and Italian…
Madre: dramma in 4 atti [Mothers: drama in 4 acts]. Chicago: Italian Labor Publishig [sic] Co, 1931.
First produced in New York on April 19, 1931, at the Civic Repertory Theatre, Madre remains one of the best-known anti-fascist plays written and produced in America by Italians. It is discussed at some length by historian Marcella Bencivenni in…
Nostalgici pensieri. [n.p.]: [Cincinnati], [n.d.].
Dedicated by author Novelli to his "consort" Iolanda. This copy is inscribed by Novelli to his friend, Theodore Gantz. The bookseller who sold me this work (or a prior owner) noted that Novelli is from Cincinnati, and lived from 1904-1990. As the…
Peccato e luce [Sin and Light]. New York: The Venetian Press, 1949.
Giuseppe (later, Joseph) Tusiani (b. San Marco in Lamis (Puglia) 1924 - d. New York 2020) was a poet who composed in four languages - Italian, Gargano dialect, Latin and English - an academic teacher of Italian literature, and a translator.…
Per la libertà! (dalle mie conversazioni col Conte di Rudio, complice de Felice Orsini) [For Liberty! (of my conversations with Count di Rudio, accomplice of Felice Orsini)]. San Francisco: Canessa Printing Co., 1913.
For several years, I had a facsimile copy of this important work. Then to my surprise, the original - impossible to find - became available.Carlo Camillo Di Rudio (1832-1910), one of the most colorful of 19th century Italian immigrants, to be sure,…
Poesie di Thomas Fragale [Poems of Thomas Fragale]. Kansas City: Tipografia Mario Porretti, [1929].
Born in 1855, Fragale emigrated from a town near Catanzaro in Calabria in 1892. He wrote poetry while pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Hammondton, NJ, until 1900. The generally patriotic and pro-monarchial tone of his verses separates him from…
Rivista d'Italia e d'America [Magazine of Italy and of America]/ Italy-America Review. New York: Casa ed. della "Rivista d'Italia e d'America", 1926. Anno IV, Num. XI (novembre 1926).
This magazine "of Italy and of America," or in English "Italy-America Review," published in Rome, nominally has editorial addresses also in New York and Cordoba, Argentina, this last reflecting the magazine's boast that it covers Italian life in…
S. Giovannino [Saint Little John]. New York: [n.p.], 1946.
Born in Palermo, Pietro Varvaro (active 1910-1950s) lived in New York in relative obscurity for the latter part of his life, visited often by Italian friends from what remained of the Sicilian nobility, such as the Prince of Niscemi. He was also…
Spose di guerra: dramma in un atto [War Brides: drama in one act]. New York: Casa ed. "Il Martello", [1915].
This feminist, anti-war play is the best known work of socialist and suffragette Wentworth (b. 1872 - d. 1942); it's a topic that would have appealed to Carlo Tresca, proprietor of Il Martello and its book publishing arm. Tresca also used the…
Sull'Oceano: romanzo [On the Ocean: a novel] [Facsimile]. New York: Tip. Ed. L. Scarlino, 1921.
Stanco is considered one of the most sophisticated of the Italian-language fiction writers, yet it is impossible to find copies of any of his novels, so I'm happy to have one of his more famous novels (taken from the title of Edmondo De Amicis's…
Il Rivoluzionario: commedia in 3 atti. New York: Nicoletti Bros. Press, [c. 1910].
Set in the Abbruzzi, this play in three acts was written by a Waldensian pastor, Giovanni Tron, who ministered in East Harlem. As a young man, Norman Thomas took Italian lessons from him. This work is not found in OCLC. The dealer who sold me this…
La fabbrica parla [The Factory Speaks]. Milano: Milano-Sera Ed., 1950.
Taddei published many works in the U.S. during the fascist era, when it would have been impossible to do so in Italy. Once the war was over, as is the case at the time of publication of this work, Taddei published in his native Italy.Ezio Taddei (b.…
I sotterranei di New York [The Undergrounds of New York]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, 1915.
This novel is the 16th of 19 or 20 that Ciambelli authored over a long and productive career. Two of the others, La trovatella di Mulberry Street and I misteri di Mulberry Street (this latter in a facsimile copy only), are in the Collection. I have a…
Parole collettive [Collective Words]. New York: S.E.A. [Società Editrice Americana], 1941.
Ezio Taddei (b. Livorno, 1895 - d. Rome, 1956) was involved in Italian politics at an early age: at thirteen he was arrested for involvement in a demonstration connected with a nurses’ strike in a Roman hospital. When released from prison, he found…
137 racconti per dilettare e guidare gli italo-americani sulla via del bene: consigli, indovinelli, brindisi, proverbi [137 Tales to Delight and Guide Italian Americans on the Road to Happiness: Words of Advice, Riddles, Toasts, Proverbs]. Pittsburgh: Tip. De "La Stella di Pittsburgh," [n.d.]
There is no indication of authorship, no date of publication, or publisher, just the printer, namely, the Tipografia de "La Stella di Pittsburgh." I do not find it on OCLC or in the Italian library system.This copy was a gift to me from distinguished…