BERLINER PORTRÄT GALERIE - OBSTETRICIAN OF LITERATURE EPISODE 2: EINAUDI VERLAG

In the midst of fascism, two young men founded Einaudi Verlag in Turin in 1933: Giulio Einaudi, the namesake, son of the future president Luigi Einaudi, and Leone Ginzburg, school friend and intellectual, died in 1944 as a result of torture by the Gestapo.

Writers such as Cesare Pavese, Natalia Ginzburg and Italo Calvino were closely associated with the publishing house as editors and authors.

It was a great honor to be published by Einaudi; books were considered something sacred. Her magazines published works loyal to the regime. House searches and prison sentences did not change their program.

For decades, the Turin publishing house was a melting pot of intellectual movements and wonderful writers such as Marcel Proust, Elsa Morante, Jean-Paul Sartre and Ernest Hemingway.

Those responsible at Einaudi were characterized by their political stance, daring and high artistic talent. The fact that this fantastically creative place, that Einaudi Verlag has now been taken over by Italy's largest magazine publisher Mondadori, has chaired — to make matters worse — Marina Berlusconi, daughter of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, since 2003, is almost bitter.

Despite this development, let us not give up and draw confidence from the thoughts and “literary actions” of the great founders of Einaudi Verlag.

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