America: Primo Amore [America: First Love]. Milano: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1959.

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 in 1945 by Einaudi (Turin).

Soldati (b. Turin, 1906- d. 1999) was a writer and film director. Jesuit secondary school educated, he graduated from the University of Torino, where he befriended writer and activist Carlo Levi. 

Though he didn't remain long enough in the U.S. to qualify as an immigrant or "Italian American," this work is in the collection because his observations of this country, like those of Dario Papa and Ferdinando Fontana, who spent about the same amount of time in the U.S. before returning to Italy, merit attention for their thoughtfulness. Though he won the Premio Strega for Lettere da Capri (1954), America: Primo Amore remains perhaps his most popular work.

Mario Soldati

Arnoldo Mondadori

1959

19.5 x 12cm; 264 p.

Italian