Luciano Foà

Luciano Foà (born January 2, 1915 in Milan , † January 25, 2005 ibid) was an Italian literary critic and publisher . In 1962 he founded the Adelphi Edizioni publishing house together with others .

Life

Foà's literary work began in 1933. At first he mainly appeared as a translator. In 1937 he met Roberto Bazlen , with whom he would have a long friendship. The two developed plans for their own publishing house, which, however , could not be realized under fascism . His friend Adriano Olivetti , long-time boss of the Olivetti company , was also involved.

In 1943 Foà went to Switzerland, in 1945 he returned to Italy after the end of the Second World War . In 1947 he joined the PCI , which he left after the 1956 Hungarian uprising . He later stated that he was still in agreement with the party's political goals but did not believe in its "philosophy or metaphysics".

From 1951 to 1961 he held a managerial position ( segretario generale ) at the Einaudi publishing house in Turin . He was also in favor of publishing the Nietzsche edition prepared by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari , but was ultimately outvoted because Nietzsche, still considered a “Nazi philosopher”, did not fit into the more left-wing publishing program. Foà took this as an opportunity to leave Einaudi and now with Roberto Bazlen , as planned many years earlier, to found the Adelphi publishing house in Milan. Adriano Olivetti's son Roberto provided the necessary capital. As a young employee, Roberto Calasso could be won, under whose leadership the publishing house was very successful from the beginning of the 1970s. Right from the start, the publishing house set itself the goal of spreading non-Italian literature, especially European modern classics , in Italy.

Foà died in Milan in 2005 at the age of 90 and was buried in Pré-Saint-Didier .

Web links

• Obituary (Italian) from the Corriere della Sera