Italiani di America: Enciclopedia Biografica Vol. III [Italians in America: Biographical Encyclopedia Vol. III]. New York: Cocce Brothers, 1949.
Title
Italiani di America: Enciclopedia Biografica Vol. III [Italians in America: Biographical Encyclopedia Vol. III]. New York: Cocce Brothers, 1949.
Description
While this work calls itself "Volume III," it's really more a reprint of the original work from 13 years before but supplemented by additional names. Clearly, the original was successful enough that Flamma (or Cocce Press) thought it worthwhile to issue augmented versions of the first one. The University of Minnesota has a copy of Volume II.
Flamma (b. Caltanissetta, Sicily, 1882; d. New York, 1961) emigrated to America in the first decade of the 20th century. During the First World War, he was a volunteer in the U.S. army. He lived in Chicago as secretary of the Italian Chamber of Commerce, and then moved to New York, where between 1922 and 1924 he was the director of the magazine Il Vaglio. “I have been in America for ten years, stubbornly following the bitter and harsh path of art. I am still surprised that I have not yet forgotten my Italian, given that the three million Italians in America speak every dialect but Italian.”
Flamma claimed preeminence for having pioneered attempts to draw middle-class themes onto the popular stage of New York’s Little Italy (though he also boasted of successes on Broadway). He was one of the few Italian writers of the era who managed to get his work translated into English.
While there is much on Flamma's life in Durante in his introduction to the excerpt published there, Durante notes that Flamma was not reliable on such questions. Indeed, the researches of Stefano Morello in New York reveal that, among other things: Flamma's real name was Domenico Pignato; he pretended to have been born in Rome; he was escaping a marriage made in Italy under his real name - hence, the name change; before emigrating to the U.S., he published Volfango: dramma in quattro atti in 1900 in Caltanisseta (adding his French mother's name, Audibert, after his real name of Domenico Pignato), published by Stabilimento Tipografico Ospizio provinciale di beneficenza of Umberto I, which was the printing press of a provincial charitable institution in Italy named for King Umberto I; and other interesting facts.
Flamma (b. Caltanissetta, Sicily, 1882; d. New York, 1961) emigrated to America in the first decade of the 20th century. During the First World War, he was a volunteer in the U.S. army. He lived in Chicago as secretary of the Italian Chamber of Commerce, and then moved to New York, where between 1922 and 1924 he was the director of the magazine Il Vaglio. “I have been in America for ten years, stubbornly following the bitter and harsh path of art. I am still surprised that I have not yet forgotten my Italian, given that the three million Italians in America speak every dialect but Italian.”
Flamma claimed preeminence for having pioneered attempts to draw middle-class themes onto the popular stage of New York’s Little Italy (though he also boasted of successes on Broadway). He was one of the few Italian writers of the era who managed to get his work translated into English.
While there is much on Flamma's life in Durante in his introduction to the excerpt published there, Durante notes that Flamma was not reliable on such questions. Indeed, the researches of Stefano Morello in New York reveal that, among other things: Flamma's real name was Domenico Pignato; he pretended to have been born in Rome; he was escaping a marriage made in Italy under his real name - hence, the name change; before emigrating to the U.S., he published Volfango: dramma in quattro atti in 1900 in Caltanisseta (adding his French mother's name, Audibert, after his real name of Domenico Pignato), published by Stabilimento Tipografico Ospizio provinciale di beneficenza of Umberto I, which was the printing press of a provincial charitable institution in Italy named for King Umberto I; and other interesting facts.
Creator
Ario Flamma
Publisher
Cocce Brothers
Date
1949
Format
23.5 x 15.75cm; 370 p.
Language
Italian
Citation
Ario Flamma, “Italiani di America: Enciclopedia Biografica Vol. III [Italians in America: Biographical Encyclopedia Vol. III]. New York: Cocce Brothers, 1949.,” Italian-Language American Imprints: The Periconi Collection, accessed July 13, 2026, https://italianamericanimprints.omeka.net/items/show/169.
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