La trovatella di Mulberry Street [The Foundling of Mulberry Street]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, 1919.
Title
La trovatella di Mulberry Street [The Foundling of Mulberry Street]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, 1919.
Description
Ciambelli (b. Lucca, 1862; d. New York, 1931) was the most celebrated and prodigious novelist — as many as eight novels of his were in print and for sale at the bookstore of Il Progresso Italo-Americano (advertisement, July 5, 1896) — as well as journalist in early 20th-century Italian America, contributing to several newspapers and journals simultaneously throughout New York, including Il Progresso, La Voce del Popolo and La Follia di New York.
Called Little Italy’s Eugène Sue by critic Francesca Bernabei, he published several serial novels of Italian American life, usually weaving intricate plots of corruption, criminal women, and outrageous activity in a mixture of Zola and Poe.
This novel fits within this genre, intertwining the lives of “the foundling,” Luigina, and the daughter of a millionaire, Annie Richardson.
Though one of Ciambelli’s dreams — to have his works translated into and published in English — was never realized, that did not slow his industriousness in other writing projects. Known for Balzac-like all-night bouts of writing, and his serial publications, letteratura d’appendice, distributed as appendices tucked into successive issues of a newspaper, he also engaged in political organizing among Colorado mineworkers.
Alfredo Bosi, who is generally restrained in describing writers, calls Ciambelli in Cinquant’ anni di vita italiana in America “one of the most popular and prolific colonial writers and journalists, capable of setting out in one night, from the first scene to the last, a big play in five acts, of writing a whole novel of the most sensational kind or of filling with the freshest material about all of the Italian colonies in 8-pages: Bernardino Ciambelli!” (p. 408). Q.v. also, Gli Italiani negli Stati Uniti d’America [The Italians of the United States of America]. New York: Italian American Directory Co., 1906, at pp. 153–155 (“Columbus Day”).
Called Little Italy’s Eugène Sue by critic Francesca Bernabei, he published several serial novels of Italian American life, usually weaving intricate plots of corruption, criminal women, and outrageous activity in a mixture of Zola and Poe.
This novel fits within this genre, intertwining the lives of “the foundling,” Luigina, and the daughter of a millionaire, Annie Richardson.
Though one of Ciambelli’s dreams — to have his works translated into and published in English — was never realized, that did not slow his industriousness in other writing projects. Known for Balzac-like all-night bouts of writing, and his serial publications, letteratura d’appendice, distributed as appendices tucked into successive issues of a newspaper, he also engaged in political organizing among Colorado mineworkers.
Alfredo Bosi, who is generally restrained in describing writers, calls Ciambelli in Cinquant’ anni di vita italiana in America “one of the most popular and prolific colonial writers and journalists, capable of setting out in one night, from the first scene to the last, a big play in five acts, of writing a whole novel of the most sensational kind or of filling with the freshest material about all of the Italian colonies in 8-pages: Bernardino Ciambelli!” (p. 408). Q.v. also, Gli Italiani negli Stati Uniti d’America [The Italians of the United States of America]. New York: Italian American Directory Co., 1906, at pp. 153–155 (“Columbus Day”).
Creator
Bernardino Ciambelli
Publisher
Società Libraria Italiana
Date
1919
Format
19 x 14.5cm; 387 p.
Language
Italian
Citation
Bernardino Ciambelli, “La trovatella di Mulberry Street [The Foundling of Mulberry Street]. New York: Società Libraria Italiana, 1919.,” Italian-Language American Imprints: The Periconi Collection, accessed April 28, 2024, https://italianamericanimprints.omeka.net/items/show/48.
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