Giangiacomo Feltrinelli | |
|---|---|
 Feltrinelli in the late 1960s | |
| Born | (1926-06-19)19 June 1926 |
| Died | 14 March 1972(1972-03-14) (aged 45) Segrate, Lombardy, Italy |
| Other names | "Osvaldo" |
| Occupation(s) | Businessman, political activist |
| Years active | 1945–1972 |
| Known for | European translations ofDoctor Zhivago; publishingLampedusa'sThe Leopard; founding Italy's biggest chain of bookstores; articles anticipating afascist coup in Italy;[1] patronage of left wingterrorist groups |
| Political party | PSI (until 1947) PCI (1947–1958, lapsed) |
| Other political affiliations | Gruppi di Azione Partigiana (Partisan Action Groups, 1970–1972) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Carlo Fitzgerald Feltrinelli (1962–) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | Kingdom of Italy |
| Branch | Italian Co-belligerent Army |
| Years of service | 1944–1945 |
| Rank | Soldier |
| Unit | "Legnano" Combatant Group |
| Battles / wars | |
Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (Italian:[dʒanˈdʒaːkomofeltriˈnɛlli]; 19 June 1926 – 14 March 1972) was an influential Italianpublisher, businessman, and political activist who was active in the period between theSecond World War and Italy'sYears of Lead. He founded a vast library of documents mainly in the history of internationallabour andsocialist movements.
Feltrinelli is perhaps most famous for his decision to translate and publishBoris Pasternak's novelDoctor Zhivago in the West after the manuscript was smuggled out of theSoviet Union in the late 1950s. He died violently under mysterious circumstances in 1972.
Giangiacomo Feltrinelli was born in 1926 into one ofItaly's wealthiest families, perhaps originating inFeltre. His father, Carlo Feltrinelli, controlled numerous companies includingCredito Italiano,Edison S.p.A. andLegnami Feltrinelli, which managed vast lumber holdings in central Europe, some having providedsleepers for the enormous extension of Italian railway tracks in the nineteenth century. Carlo died in 1935. At the instigation of Giangiacomo'smonarchist mother, Giannalisa, Italian dictatorBenito Mussolini had him createdMarchese diGargnano at the age of 12 by KingVittorio Emmanuele III.[3] In 1940, Feltrinelli's mother marriedLuigi Barzini,[4] editor of the Italian newspaperCorriere della Sera. During theSecond World War, the family left the Villa Feltrinelli[5] in Gargnano, north ofSalò, to be occupied by Mussolini, and moved toMonte Argentario.[6]
The young Feltrinelli first took an interest in the living conditions of the poor and working class during discussions with the staff who ran his family's estate. He came to believe that undercapitalism most people could never attain his privileges and were compelled to sell their labour for a pittance to industrialists and landowners.[7] During the latter stages of the war, Feltrinelli joined theItalian Co-Belligerent Army'sCombat Group "Legnano"[8] and enrolled in theItalian Communist Party (PCI), fighting the invading GermanWehrmacht and the remnants of Mussolini'sFascist regime.[6]
In the post-war period, the PCI had a great deal of popular support and political influence; after 1948 it became the main opposition. Italy was in economic ruins and the party's previous opposition to Mussolini had gained it great popularity. The PCI was incoalition until 1947.[9]
Carlo Feltrinelli'swill made Giangiacomo heir to three-quarters of his assets, which came fully under his control when he reached the age of 21 in 1947.[6]Banca Unione (formerlyBanca Feltrinelli) was controlled by Giangiacomo until 1968, when it was acquired byMichele Sindona. According to some interpretations, Sindona was pushed to buy out Feltrinelli by theVatican Bank, a minority shareholder embarrassed by cohabitation with a communist partner.[10]
From 1949 Feltrinelli collected documents for the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Library inMilan, documenting the history of ideas, in particular those related to the development of the internationallabour andsocialist movements.[6] The Library later became an Institute; later still the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation, possessing some 200,000 rare and modern books, extensive collections of newspapers and periodicals (both historical and current), and over a million primary source materials.[11]
Near the end of 1954, Feltrinelli established a publishing company in Milan,Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore. Its first published book was the autobiography ofJawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India.[citation needed]
In late 1956, an Italian journalist showed Feltrinelli the manuscript ofDoctor Zhivago by the Russian writerBoris Pasternak.[4][12] Feltrinelli's Slavist advisor told him to publish the novel, stating that to not do so would "constitute a crime against culture".[13] His son Carlo's biography of Feltrinelli[6] records a correspondence between him and Pasternak as they successfully resisted clumsy attempts by theSoviet regime to halt publication of the novel.[14]Doctor Zhivago immediately became an international bestseller.[15]
Feltrinelli sold thefilm rights toMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $450,000. Produced in 1965, theresulting adaptation became one of the highest-grossing and critically acclaimed films of all time.[16] The communist leadership in Moscow, which had not wanted the book published, criticised Feltrinelli, who in turn decided not to renew his PCI membership in 1957. While Feltrinelli remained on good terms with the PCI, party leaders were reluctant to be seen to condone criticism of the Soviet Union.
Feltrinelli Editore scored another coup in 1958 when it published a book rejected by every other significant Italian publisher:The Leopard byGiuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.[4] Described by some as the greatest novel of the twentieth century,[citation needed]The Leopard centres on theSicilian nobility during theRisorgimento of the mid-19th century, when the Italian middle class rose violently and formed a united Italy underGiuseppe Garibaldi and theHouse of Savoy.
Despite these successes,Feltrinelli Editore lost about 400 millionlire a year on aturnover of 1.207 billion lire, as Feltrinelli believed in keeping his prices low for maximum readership access.[17] Still, theFeltrinelli Libra bookstore chain had a nominal capital of 120 million lire in 1956. The following year, Feltrinelli built up a chain of retail outlets which after his death became the largest in Italy; it had over a hundred bookshops.[18]Feltrinelli Masonite, which he chaired, had a turnover of 1.421 billion lire in 1965. Another firm which he advised onreal estate development had a capital of 400 million lire in 1970.[1]
Whatever his own reading tastes, Feltrinelli was always keen to promote theavant-garde, including the works of the influential literary circleGroup 63. He also took the risk of publishing and distributing novels banned under Italianobscenity laws, such asHenry Miller'sTropic of Cancer.[9]
In 1960, Feltrinelli married German photographerInge Schönthal, who gave birth to a son named Carlo. Inge eventually became thede facto head ofFeltrinelli Editore as Feltrinelli came to devote himself to clandestine political activity, of which she disapproved. Mother and son still run the publishing house together today.[19]
In the post-war period, Feltrinelli had joined theItalian Socialist Party (PSI). However, in 1947 the PSI was engulfed in crisis following the departure of sections of its moderate wing, prompting Feltrinelli (alongside his new wife, Bianca) to rejoin the PCI instead.[20] He remained a member of the party until 1958, when he left in solidarity with 'revisionist' criticism of theHungarian Uprising and also because of certain conflicts that had emerged within the PCI regarding his publishing house's editorial policy, although he continued to maintain friendly relations with several of the party's leaders.[1][4]
Feltrinelli spent the 1960s travelling the world and making links with various radicalThird World leaders andguerrilla movements. In the Cuban house of the photographerAlberto Korda, Feltrinelli saw and was given Korda's iconic photo ofChe Guevara.[21] Within six months of Che's assassination, Feltrinelli sold over two million posters bearing the image.[22] In 1964, Feltrinelli met Cuban prime ministerFidel Castro. In 1967, he went to Bolivia and met withRégis Debray.
Feltrinelli published the writings of figures such as Castro, Che andHo Chi Minh, and a series of pamphlets on the unfoldinginsurgencies and wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.[6] He was a close friend of the student leaderRudi Dutschke, whom he invited to convalesce in Italy after Dutschke was seriously wounded by an assassination attempt.[6] Feltrinelli gave financial support to thePopular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, among other causes.[19][failed verification]
In 1968, Feltrinelli went toSardinia to make contact withleft-wing andseparatist groups on the island, intending to make Sardinia a socialist republic similar to Cuba and "liberate it fromcolonialism".[23] His attempt to strengthenGraziano Mesina's rebel forces was eventually nullified by Italian military intelligence.[24][25]
Feltrinelli increasingly advocated guerrilla activity in Italy. In 1970, fearing a right-wingcoup d'etat, he founded the militantGruppi di Azione Partigiana (Partisan Action Groups, or GAP).[3][26] GAP would become Italy's second-largestmilitant organization to be formed during theYears of Lead, after theRed Brigades. Anticipating assassination attempts by theCIA orMossad, Feltrinelli assumed anom de guerre ("Osvaldo") and went underground.[6]
On 15 March 1972, Feltrinelli was found dead at the foot of anelectricity pylon atSegrate, near Milan, apparently killed by an explosive device he and other GAP members were planting the day before.[27] Some 8,000 people attended Feltrinelli's funeral.[9] His death, like his father's 37 years before, was viewed as suspicious by several intellectuals, including investigative journalistCamilla Cederna, but Barzini rejected the hypothesis of a state-sponsored assassination:
Yet is it very likely that a conspirator with the gifts of a great novelist or a great film-director was to be found among the secret agents? a plotter capable of staging a death so faithful to the victim—his past, his nature and his character?[28]
In 1974, an audio recording found in a shelter of the Red Brigades described Feltrinelli as
sitting astride the pylon preparing thedynamite. At that time the first accomplice, half-way up the pylon, felt a strong and dry explosion but clung tightly to the pillar … He fell to the ground, looked upward and saw nothing, looked down and saw Osvaldo [Feltrinelli] rolling on the ground. His immediate impression was that Osvaldo had lost both his legs.[4]
In 1979, during an anti-terrorist trial, the Red Brigades defendants read into the court record a signed statement that Feltrinelli
was engaged in an operation to sabotage electricity pylons intended to cause ablackout in a wide area of Milan … It was a technical error committed by him … which led to the fatal accident and the subsequent failure of the whole operation.[29]
The defendants denied the thesis of the murder, claiming it was a commemoration of the publisher and his political ideas, and a critique addressed to the circles of the extra-parliamentary left who had tried to deny them.[30] They also admitted that Feltrinelli was not obsessed with a neo-fascist coup, because he wanted to establish in Italy the armed struggle and was one of the first to have had contacts with the GermanRed Army Faction:[30] finally they affirmed that the relationships between GAP and RB were characterized by the maximum correctness, without competitive spirit.[30]
The trial ended with eleven convictions, seven acquittals, twoprescriptions and nineamnesties[31] (this legal sentence was largely confirmed in 1981).[32]
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