ITALIAN EDITION OF OUR TOWN TRANSLATED by NOTED MID 20th CENTURY FEMALE TRANSLATOR WILDER CALLS HER TRANSLATION "ONE OF THE WORST TRANSLATIONS POSSIBLE"

PICCOLA CITTÀ [OUR TOWN], by THORNTON WILDER. Published by Franco Campitelli, Editore, Roma, 1944. Softcovers, French flaps, 5.5x8.5 inches. ITALIAN edition, translated from the English by Alessandra Scalero.

SIGNED, INSCRIBED by THORNTON WILDER to Fellow Playwright GEORGE KELLEY:

"George Kelley - Cordial greetings / Thornton Wilder / Hamden Conn / January 1950."

Below which Thornton wrote (caps added for emphasis):

"Note page 73 - The Translator has omitted 'the address on the envelope' - one of the many places which render this version one of the WORST TRANSLATIONS POSSIBLE."

FAIR condition: The wrappers are reinforced and held together with clear tape at the spine and front hinge, otherwise the covers are lightly toned, have some corner and edge creases, and a chip to the top edge, but remain bright and clear. Internally in good condition, the pages are toned, especially at the margins. Overall a complete copy with tape reinforcement to the spine and hinges.

The bitter, anti-woman inscription by Thornton Wilder makes this book special.

ALESSANDRA SCALERO was an important FEMALE ITALIAN TRANSLATOR who translated many important works, including Virginia Woolf's Orlando, and was considered a feminist scholar who, amazingly was able to capture the essence of subversive novels, including Orlando, in Italy during the repressive 1930's and 1940's. You can read about her online. Here are a couple Internet tidbits:

"Translating Orlando in 1930s Fascist Italy: Virginia Woolf, translated by Alessandra Scalero // The first full translation of Orlando in Italian was published on 1 October 1933 by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore. What made the Italian translation of Orlando such a literary and economic success was not only the brilliance of the novel but also, as I shall show, the lexical expertise and brilliance of its translator, Alessandra Scalero. In her translation Scalero was able to remain true to the spirit and the style of a subversive novel and what is more remarkable, she accomplished this feat in a climate of repressive censorship."

"Alessandra Scalero worked as a literary translator from English, German, and French for the publishing houses Mondadori and Il Corbaccio, from the late 1920s to the early 1940s. She translated novels by many prominent authors including Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, John Dos Passos and Daphne Du Maurier and often translated works for Mondadori's Medusa series. Scalero translated Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop into Italian in 1936, and Cather wrote she was impressed with the quality of the work."

Key Words: Women, Women Authors, Women Translators, Italy, Italian Feminism