The project “Dear Linder…” focuses on the “ALI-Erich Linder” archive, held at the Arnoldo and Alberto Mondadori Foundation (FAAM) in Milan. The archive gathers the correspondence of the literary agent Erich Linder (1924-1983) who, from 1951 onwards directed the ALI (the Italian International Literary Agency), founded by Augusto Foà and directed until then by his son Luciano Foà.
The project was funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and University under the program PRIN 2022 (Projects of Relevant National Interest) and gathers the Universities of Padua and Milano Statale, which collaborates in close synergy with the Arnoldo and Alberto Mondadori Foundation.
The main objective of the project is to exploit the huge philological potential of the ALI editorial archive. Besides administrative documents, indeed, the ALI correspondence proves to be full of materials extremely useful to retrace the writing history of texts and the publishing history of books: Linder correspondents, indeed, used to reveal to their agent valuable information on their ongoing or soon to be published works, they complain about the translators’ infidelities (thus explaining the deeper reasons of their poetics) or ask Linder for advice on their works, obtaining hints on the structure and style of their works and even (albeit more rarely) a careful editing. They also discuss the placing of books on catalogues, the structure of indexes, and the peri-textual elements of the books.
Erich Linder was the main literary agent of the 20th century: he represented about 60% of the main Italian writers, and has been the mediator of the foreign literature towards Italy, and of the Italian literature abroad. Also known as “the publisher of publishers” or “the authors’ union man”, Linder has acquired a central role in the field of publishing history. By exploring the ALI-Erich Linder archive, one can discover the background of the Italian editorial industry and of the relations with foreign agencies, and follow the trajectories of the various works, also discovering the strategies of the represented authors and the cultural policies of the Italian and foreign publishers. Impasses, disputed or ignored works, infringed rights, authors’ whims and not always easy collaborations with translators… the Linder’s correspondence offers an insight into the interregnum between the private dimension of writing and the public dimension of its publishing and distribution. An incredible insight into a management of the literary field that marked the 20th Century, and which has set with the end of the Linder era and the parallel changing of the publishing industry which witnessed the gradual disappearance of what Giancarlo Ferretti, in his Storia dell’editoria italiana (Turin, Einaudi, 2004) called the key-player publisher.
The website of the Arnoldo and Alberto Mondadori Foundation currently makes available an accurate online inventory of the archive, organized chronologically by year, in series indicating in alfabethical order the correspondents (mainly publishers, authors and literary agents).As part of the project, the research team is enriching the inventory through a digital tool, realized by Codex, aimed at “mapping” some of the contents of the fund, thus facilitating an analytic research across these materials. This will allow scholars to navigate the collection based on their research topic, thus enhancing the scientific and cultural exploitation of one of the richest editorial archives of the 20th Century.