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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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…
Santa Lucia: le canzoni del 1929 [Saint Lucy: songs of 1929]. New York: Italian Book Company, 1929.
The actual publisher of this music in Italy was Piedigrotta "Santa Lucia", Libero Bovio, Direttore. The Italian Book Company was the importer (although listed as publisher), and probably had its customary exclusive rights to sell the work in the U.S.
Santa Lucia: le canzoni del 1925 [Saint Lucy: Songs of 1925]. New York: Italian Book Company, 1925.
The actual publisher of these songs was Casa ed. musicale, Francesco Feola, Napoli. The Italian Book Company, the importer, held exclusive rights to sell and distribute in the U.S. It also seemed to hold the copyright.
Serenatella: versi di Libero Bovio [Serenatella: verses by Libero Bovio]. New York: Italian Book Company, 1918.
The Italian Book Company is nominally the "publisher," but in fact it's really only the copyright holder in the U.S., as noted at the bottom of the second page of this sheet music. In fact, on the cover the work is noted as the "property of the…
Rosmunda [Facsimile]. New York: Nicoletti Bros Press, 1915.
Rosmunda is the rare example of a screenplay written in the Italian community.Cadicamo (b. Cosenza, 1842; emigrated to U.S. in 1887 - d. New York 1921) was part of an Arbresh (Italian-Albanian) family. He was an editor of L'Eco d'Italia from…
Tennysoniane: "Nothing Will Die," "All Things Will Die". New York: Francesco Tocci, Ed., 1909.
A string-tied binding, like this one, and with deckled foredge, was an expensive way to produce books, and thus unusual in books published by Italians in the U.S. On the verso of the title page is "copyright 1909 by Prof. Giuseppe Cadicamo." Cadicamo…
Sonata elegiaca: dramma [Elegiac Sonata: Drama]. Brooklyn: Tartamella/Soc. Tipografica Italiana, 1921.
Ludovico (really Michele) Caminita (b. Palermo, 1878 - d. New York 1943?) had one of the lengthiest, most varied and colorful lives of all the Italian anarchists in America, starting or writing a number of newspapers (with politics ranging from left…
Canti esotici degli Ozarks [Exotic Songs of the Ozarks]. St. Louis: Fairmount Publishing, 1958.
This is No. 373 of 500 copies printed of this work. It is another bi-lingual work by what appears to be Caradonna's own publishing operation, with facing translation in this case by Charles Guenther. The very American subject matter of these songs…
I canti d 'un raggio di sole [Songs of a Ray of Sunlight]. St. Louis: Fairmount Publishing, 1951.
One of several bi-lingual books of poetry in small, handsome format by what appears to have been the author's own Fairmount Publisher. Facing translations by C. Victor Stahl. Unlike many other post-war Italian poetry publications in the U.S., which…
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…
The New Book of Caricatures by Enrico Caruso. New York: La Follia di New York - Marziale Sisca, 1965.
This later edition, the most commonly available one (dated 1965), lacks the biographical entry at the outset, the ads at the end, and most of the Italian-language material. However, it does contain Caruso’s letters in the Italian original,…
Poesie napoletane [Neopolitan Poetry]. Napoli: Cav. Ciro Russo, 1949.
With a preface by Pasquale Ruocco. Cenerazzo was an actor and author of theatre, poetry, songs and Neapolitan caricatures, who arrived in the U.S. at the age of 12. Self-taught, he collaborated with Francesco Ricciardi, performing duets and…
Il martire del dovere, ovvero Giuseppe Petrosino - dramma in quattro atti [The Martyr to Duty, or Giuseppe Petrosino - a drama in four acts] [Reprint]. Napoli: Tullio Pironti, 2009 [n.d.].
One act of this recovered (by Durante) play is reproduced in Durante.Giuseppe Petrosino was the first head of the Italian squad of the New York City Police Department, and in charge of investigating the Mafia and its crimes in New York. On…
I misteri di Mulberry Street [The Mysteries of Mulberry Street] [Facsimile]. New York: Frugone & Balletto, [1893].
Martino Marazzi's Voices of Italian America: a History of Early italian American Literature with a Critical Anthology (Madison, 2004) contains an excerpt from this work in translation.Tipografia del "Bollettino della Sera"; notation of each of 37…
Core 'ngrato: canzone napoletana [Ungrateful Heart: Neapolitan Song]. Milano: Ed. Ricordi, 1947.
Note "versi di R. Cordiferro" in interior; "trascrizione per fisarmonica di Luigi Oreste Anzaghi [transciption for accordion by Luigi Oreste Anzaghi]" noted on outside cover; published by G. Ricordi © 1911, i.e., several decades before this copy,…
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,…
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)] [Facsimile]. San Francisco: Canessa Printing Co., 1913.
Facsimile copy. I acquired this facsimile copy before I found the original. Kept in the collection as a reading copy, as the original is fairly fragile. See the original copy's description of this work.
Ode alla Calabria [Ode to Calabria]. Buenos Aires: Casa ed. "La Voce dei Calabresi," 1933.
This work, published by the book arm of the Italian-language Argentinian newspaper, La Voce dei Calabresi, commemorates and reflects a literary soiree held in Brooklyn in 1930 (and elsewhere, e.g., Toronto) in which the title poem was recited (and…
Ode alla Calabria [Ode to Calabria].Buenos Aires: Casa ed. "La Voce dei Calabresi," 1933.
With a translation (from Calabrese into Italian) by F. Greco, this recounts an evening soiree given in honor of Cordiferro by his friends from Acri (Cosenza) 14 December 1930 in the house of Antonio Meringolo in Brooklyn.See the full description of…
Ermete Novelli: Conferenza letta la sera del 27 Aprile 1919 alla "Irish Federation Hall" di New York per l'inaugurazione del "Circolo Filodrammatica Ermete Novelli" [Ermete Novelli: lecture read the evening of 27 April 1919 at "Irish Federation Hall" of New York for the opening of the "Philodrammatic Circle of Ermete Novelli."] New York: Manhattan Printing Co., 1919.
As the title of this work explains, this talk was given by Cordiferro at the opening of the Philodrammatic Circle of Ermete Novelli.Ermete Novelli was an Italian tragedian who, beginning in 1907, toured in the U.S. (after having done so for years…
La vendetta: lirica in versi liberi [Vendetta: lyrics in free verse]. New York: La Follia di New York - Marziale Sisca, 1933.
Inscribed by author, as with the copy of Il prisco cavaliere in the collection, to the "scrittrice [writer] Anna Lannutti, con sincera ammirazione/Riccardo Cordiferro/ 22 gennaio, 1933."Of interest is that Lannutti's verses had just appeared in the…
Scugnizzo: poemetto napoletano [Street urchin: short Neapolitan poem]. New York: Coccè Press, [1924].
Inscribed to "Al poeta Armando Massa, con sincera e cordiale amici fa'a, con viva ammrazione, Riccardo Cordiferro, N.Y. 21 Giugno 1924."
Il prisco cavaliere [The Old Horseman]. New York: F. Sparacino; "La Follia di New York," 1924.
This copy inscribed by author to the writer Anna Lannutti in 1933, like La vendetta. This copy lacks covers or a title page. This work tells a story of Italy in 1840s & 1850s. This comic satire — the title is a play on words, as “prisco” means…
Il tallone di ferro [Heel of Iron]. San Francisco: Gene's Print Shop. 1939.
This copy is inscribed by Crespi "to Liberto Nathan"; on verso of title page, the inscription continues "A Liberto Nathan per il suo buon successo -- nell'esame dell'Università 1940 [for his great success in his university exams, 1940]" & directs…