IN THE GARDEN OF LETTERS: MARGUERITE CAETANI AND THE INTERNATIONAL LITERARY REVIEW “BOTTEGHE OSCURE” Lorenzo Salvagni A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Languages (Italian). Chapel Hill 2013 Approved by: Federico Luisetti (director) Dino Cervigni Ennio Rao Roberto Dainotto Amy Chambless © 2013 Lorenzo Salvagni ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT LORENZO SALVAGNI: In the Garden of Letters: Marguerite Caetani and the International Literary Review “Botteghe Oscure” (Under the direction of Federico Luisetti) This study focuses on the international, multilingual literary review Botteghe Oscure (1948-60), which has so far received undeservedly little attention, and its editor, the American-Italian Marguerite Chapin Caetani (1880-1963). In spite of her active role as founder and editor of two modernist anthologies, Marguerite Caetani has long been considered merely as a “lady bountiful” for the multitude of authors she supported during her forty-year career in publishing. Building on an extensive study of Caetani’s correspondence, which includes a great amount of unpublished material, my dissertation presents Marguerite Caetani as a protagonist of twentieth-century transatlantic literature and sheds light on her contribution to the formation of a new literary canon in post-war Italy. iii Marguerite Chapin Caetani (1880-1963) Fig. 1. Marguerite Caetani, ca. 1911. Photo credit: Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………. vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………………. vii Chapter INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………............1 I. Life of Marguerite Caetani……………………………………………………29 II. Commerce…………………………………………………………………….61 III. Main Collaborators: Eugene Walter and Giorgio Bassani….……………….82 IV. Botteghe Oscure…………………………………………………………….109 V. Reception…………………………………………………………………....142 VI. A Case Study: René Char…………………………………………………..165 VII. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………185 APPENDIX A: List of Contributors to Botteghe Oscure……………………….202 APPENDIX B: Botteghe Oscure Statistics……………………………………..232 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………233 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Marguerite Caetani (ca. 1911)……………………………………… iv Figure 1.1: Portrait of Marguerite Caetani by Pierre Bonnard………………… 58 Figure 1.2: Portrait of Marguerite Caetani by Édouard Vuillard………………. 59 Figure 1.3: Portrait of Camillo and Lelia Caetani by Édouard Vuillard………. 60 Figure 7.1: La bibliotheque by Édouard Vuillard……………………………... 201 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AC Archivio Caetani BO Botteghe Oscure CCF Congress for Cultural Freedom GBP Gene Baro Papers JMP Jackson Mathews Papers KBP Katherine Biddle Papers NRF Nouvelle Revue Française NYT New York Times OSS Office of Strategic Services TLS The Times Literary Supplement TR Transatlantic Review TRP Theodore Roethke Papers USIA United States Intelligence Agency USIS United States Information Service vii INTRODUCTION In the middle of the political turmoil that followed the collapse of the fascist regime at the end of WWII, Italian intellectuals’ active engagement in the re-shaping of the country resulted in an outburst of creative energies. Their effect became evident in the great number of literary reviews that emerged in reaction to the intellectual stagnation of the fascist cultural apparatus. These publications propelled a new generation of writers and poets into notoriety. My study’s goal is to retrace this unique era in Italian literary history by focusing on the international, multilingual literary review Botteghe Oscure (1948-60), which has so far received undeservedly little attention, and its editor, the American-Italian Marguerite Chapin Caetani. Literary historians and critics agree on the importance of Botteghe Oscure in the post-war Italian cultural scene and acknowledge the fact that it published some of the most prominent literary contributions of the last century, including Dylan Thomas’s Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night (1952) and the first chapter of Il Gattopardo by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1958). It is rare, however, to find more than a paragraph on Botteghe Oscure in histories of twentieth-century Italian literature. This neglect is all the more surprising if one considers that Botteghe Oscure outlived most of the literary/cultural reviews and magazines that were born and died in the decade 1947-1957, including the celebrated Aretusa and Il Politecnico founded by Elio Vittorini, both of which lasted only two years. A possible explanation for this lack of attention might reside in the fact that Botteghe Oscure, unlike its counterparts, never published anything but literature; it did not contribute reviews or criticism, provide any room for ideological confrontations, or offer critical reflection on the role of intellectuals that were so common in other publications. As early as 1924, Giuseppe Sciortino, an intellectual close to Piero Gobetti, observed that Italy had entered “The Age of Criticism” (Borsellino 75). The observation lost none of its acumen in the following years; so much so that Natalino Sapegno, in analyzing the role and scope of literary criticism in the twentieth century, would observe: “La riflessione critica sui fatti artistici [. .] acquista nel quadro della civiltà letteraria italiana del Novecento un rilievo inconsueto, una vastità e varietà di manifestazioni, un rigore metodico, quali forse non aveva conosciuto mai nei secoli precedenti [. .]” (Sapegno 883). The abundance of criticism, overflowing from literary reviews into newspapers and even illustrated magazines, was a prominent manifestation of the tendency indicated by Sciortino and Sapegno. From Leonardo to La voce, from Solaria to Letteratura, down to the contemporaries of Botteghe Oscure like Paragone and Officina, the majority of highbrow periodicals dedicated ample room to dissect, analyze, praise or condemn literature past and present. Marguerite Caetani’s review, then, stands out as a remarkable exception, one that deserves further investigation precisely because of its singularity. The absence of criticism is only one of the features that single out Botteghe Oscure among its counterparts. After an all-Italian first issue, the review began to expand its repertoire by including original contributions in other languages, without translations. Three to five languages were present in each issue: Italian, French, and English were the 2 standard fare, with the later addition of German and Spanish (starting in 1954). In his essay "Requiem for a Literary Haven," first published in 1960 in Saturday Review and later reprinted, slightly revised, as foreword for the Botteghe Oscure Index (1964), poet and Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish quantified the international scope of Botteghe Oscure: "During its twelve years the magazine published work by some 650 writers of thirty-odd nationalities, including 28 writing in Spanish (Spaniards, Mexicans, Cubans and South Americans), 39 writing in German (Germans, Austrians, Swiss), 98 writing in French (French, Belgian and Swiss) and 362 writing in English (more than half of them American and the rest British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealander) with five Filipinos, four Indians and a scattering from a dozen other countries" (MacLeish, Requiem 26). As MacLeish convincingly summarizes, Botteghe Oscure offered its readers a remarkable assortment of new international literature. One of the promotional booklets printed for the magazine proudly announced that it stood as “a sort of United Nations of literature.” Indeed, in a world increasingly divided into factions, blocks, and spheres of influence, the universalistic message sent by Botteghe Oscure could not pass unnoticed: the review became political without ever printing a word on politics; it became an example of the virtuous cultural exchange that took place in the free West. In reviewing Botteghe Oscure, several U.S. critics made this connection explicit, even if it is unlikely that Marguerite Caetani shared the propagandistic zeal of some commentators.1 Nevertheless, a comprehensive analysis of 1 For example, on June 2, 1957 Paul Engle writes in The New York Times Book Review: “We hear a great deal today about the unity of the free West. Yet in literature no university, government or foundation, with all its vast resources, does as much to realize it as one devoted lady in Rome [. .] Far better than some official propaganda, this private publication [. .] never argues about political matters. It offers something far stronger than argument: the finest, original poetry and fiction from the United States, England, Germany, Italy, France and Spain, all in their own languages.” 3 the magazine must take the political aspect into consideration. Despite the journal editor’s reluctance to participate in politicized national debates, I contend that Botteghe Oscure was ideologically just as significant as other contemporary journals; it helped strengthen that “Atlantic community of norms and values” that American officials and authors sympathetic to the cause of the Free West were actively pursuing during the cultural Cold War (Rietzler 156).2 Marguerite Caetani fostered a productive exchange between European and American literatures at a time when most intellectuals deplored the growing influence of US culture in their countries. In fact, many Italian reviews contemporary of Botteghe Oscure were sympathetic