Orsola Nemi

Orsola Nemi (born June 11, 1903 in Florence as Flora Vezzani , † February 8, 1985 in La Spezia ) was an Italian writer.

biography

Orsola Nemi's maiden name was Flora Vezzani. As a little girl, she moved to La Spezia with her father, an infantry officer who was awarded a gold medal. She designed part of her pseudonym after him, who fell on the day of St. Orsola (October 15, 1915). The other part was initially called Nemini (Latin for nobody), a symbol of their stubborn and independent character. At the age of 3, she developed polio , which marked her forever. Through an advertisement in the Fiera Letteraria she met the American writer and Italy lover Henry Furst (1893-1967), whom she later married. Furst, was the decisive encounter for Orsola Nemi's career. Thanks to him she met Montale, who published some of her poems in the "Letteratura". Bompiani entrusted her with the important task of working on the monumental work of “Dizionario delle Opere e dei Personaggi”. The friendship and collaboration with Leo Longanesi , whose secretary she was in Rome and for whom she mainly translated works by French authors, such as Alexis de Tocqueville , Balzac , Saint-Simon , Baudelaire and Flaubert, was also intensive and profitable .

Her most productive time as a writer was between the 1930s and 1980s. She wrote novels, stories, fairy tales, sagas and prayers, she was a tireless and good translator and contributor to newspapers and magazines, for example in "La Gazzetta del Popolo", " Il Messaggero ", " L'Osservatore Romano ", " Il Tempo "," Il Borghese ". In addition, she wrote cooking recipes. She began to write in the cultural climate of "Ronda", " Nouvelle Revue Française " and "Fiera Letteraria". On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the unification of Italy, she wrote the play "Camicie Rosse" in 1961.

Orsola especially loved fairy tales and wrote quite a few of them. B. “Nel tesoro delle galline”. She published many as serial stories in a special section for children in “La Gazzetta dei lavoratori”, which she signed with “il gufo della torre” or “il gufo navigante”. Some impressive titles from it were “il Califfo curioso”, “Un naufragio tra predoni” and “La Nave volante”. Many of them were dedicated to the king of the animals, such as: "L'Orso e la capinera", "la regina delle api", "il granchio d oro", "la torre dei gatti", "il gallo tramviere". In 1944 she wrote “Nel paese di Gattafata”, a long fable illustrated by Giorgio de Chirico and published by the publisher Documento.

After the death of her husband, she devoted herself to compiling the work “Il meglio di Henry Furst” with a foreword by Mario Soldati and an introduction by Ernst Jünger . In 1980 she finished the work that she had started with Henry Furst: a biography of Katharina de 'Medici .

She was friends with many intellectuals of the 20th century, such as Anna Maria Ortese, Sibilla Aleramo , Irene Brin, Lucia Rodocanachi, Eugenio Montale , Drusilla Tanzi (“la moglie Mosca”), Emilio and Leonetta Cecchi, Gianfranco Contini, Giovanni Comisso , Mario Soldati , Giuseppe Ungaretti , Carlo Bo , Ennio Flaiano , Silvio Negro, Sigfrido Bartolini, Anna Banti , Gianna Manzini, Federico Fellini , Italo Calvino , Leo Longanesi, Valentino Bompiani, Ernst Jünger and many others.

bibliography

Translations from 1944 and 1945

• Il Meglio di Baudelaire (Longanesi)
• L´Educazione Sentimentale di Flaubert (Longanesi)
• Bouvard et Pécuchet di Flaubert (Longanesi)
• I Pittori del Diciottesimo Secolo di Goncourt (Longanesi)
• Scandali e personaggi: scelta delle memorie di Saint Simon, 2 volumes (Documento Editore)
• Tre racconti di Flaubert (Mursia Editore)
• Le Tentazioni di S. Antonio di Flaubert (Mursia editore)

Books

• Rococò (Milano, Bompiani, 1940)
• Cronaca (Milano, Bompiani, 1942)
• Nel paese di Gattafata (ed. Documento, 1944)
• Lena e il Bombo (Milano, Rosa e Ballo, 1944)
• Anime Disabitate (Roma, Atlantica, 1945)
• Maddalena della Palude (Milano, Longanesi, 1949)
• Rotta a Nord (Firenze, Vallecchi, 1955)
• I Gioielli Rubati (Milano, Bompiani, 1958)
• Il sarto stregato (Milano, Ceschina, 1960)
• Camicie Rosse (Milano, Edizioni del Borghese, 1961)
• Le Signore Barabbino (Milano, Rizzoli, 1965)
• Taccuino di una donna timida (Milano, Edizioni del Borghese, 1969)
• Il tesoro delle Galline (Milano, IPL, 1970)
• L'Astrologo distratto (Roma, ed. Volpe, 1971)
• I Cristiani Dimezzati (Milano, Rusconi, 1972)
• Caterina Dè Medici (Milano, Rusconi, 1980)
• Il meglio di Henry Furst (Longanesi, 1970)

Fables

• Il califfo curioso
• Un naufragio tra pedoni
• La nave volante
• L'Orso e la capinera
• La regina delle api
• Il granchio d'oro
• L'anitra bianca
• Le bestie parlanti
• La torre die gatti
• La volpe e il riccio

literature

• Francesca Rotta Gentile (ed.): Due scrittori a Cervo: Henry Furst ed Orsola Nemi in "Storie di pittura piemontese del Novecento in Liguria". Imperia, Grafiche Amadeo, 2008.
• Elio Filippo Acrocca: Ritratti su misura di scrittori italiani. Notes biografiche, confessioni, bibliografie di poeti, narratori e critici . Venezia, Sodalizio del libro, 1960, p. 14.