Erich Linder (1924-1983) played a major role in the Italian cultural field: head of the International Literary Agency (ALI) he established in Italy the figure of the literary agent, representing the main Italian and foreign writers of the late 20th century. The ALI – Erich Linder archive, gathering the editorial correspondence of the ALI, is thus a major treasure trove of information on the dynamics between authors, publishers, translators and foreign agents.
Also known as The God of paper (this is the title of his biography, written by Dario Biagi, Rome, Avagliano, 2007) is acknowledged as a key figure to understand the development of the Italian publishing system during the 20th Century: in 2003 Erich Linder. Autori, librai, lettori (edited by Martino Marazzi, Milano, FAAM) gave voice to Linder by gathering a few interviews where he explains his vision of the publishing industry and of the role played by the various figures (authors, publishers, booksellers, readers), also including an annex reproducing a few letters which are representative of the richness and diversity of the Archive, while the book L’Agente (Segreto) Letterario da Erich Linder a oggi (edited by the FAAM, Cremona, Sylvestre Bonnard, 2004) highlighted his way to deal with publishers, also focusing on the role of the literary agent in the dynamics of cultural production of the late modernity.
There have also been works on the key role played by Linder in the spread of the foreign literature (and especially the anglo-american one) in Italy, and of the Italian literature abroad.
Thanks to the preservation of his Archive, Linder became therefore an “inescapable” for studies on the Italian publishing system. To quote Vittore Armanni: «one cannot disregard the Linder Archive in order to fully understand not only the past editorial paths […] but also its future prospects, as Linder “forged” the publishing houses playing a key role in the elaboration of their strategies » (see L’archivio di Erich Linder presso la Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori, in Erich Linder. Autori, editori, librai, lettori, 2003, p. 65).
The project Dear Linder is aimed at enhancing the figure of Linder not only as a businessman, but also as an editor, completing an approach next to sociology of literature with a philological insight. In addition to legal or administrative letters, indeed, in several occasions the agent assumed the role of an editor, revealing a huge literary awareness: he suggests titles, proposes changes to the texts, gives advices and opinions on the style or on the narrative structure of works, and so on and so forth. In other occasions the letters that the quthors sent him contain useful elements for an hermeneutical study: when they complain for the translators’ or publishers’ “infidelities”, for instance, the writers explain and precise the fisionomy and main purpose of their works. One of the best-known examples is that of Elsa Morante who, working on the American edition of “History. A novel”, explains to Linder while she is not happy with the first translation of the title (see the article of Giovanna Rosa in the collection “La Storia” di Elsa Morante, ed. By S. Sgavicchia, Pisa, ETS, 2012) and with the cover of the book, “too mournful” (as recalled by Biagi in his monograph, p. 136); as to “Arturo’s Island”, instead, she insists on aspects which are far from being only typographical ornaments, such as whitespaces between paragraphs.
Therefore, by exploring the Linder Archive from a philological perspective one can find several useful details to retrace the writing paths of the works that the agent managed: provisional titles allowing to date drafts; details on plots and contents, which are a vantage point to enter the writers’ creative laboratory; information on the writing difficulties or creative impulses, allowing to sort and / or interpret the genetic dossier of works, and to identify foretexts. A sample is given by Biagi in Il dio di carta, where he draw on the Linder Archive to retrace the dynamics between the agent and authors such as Bassani, Calvino, Morante, Sciascia, Soavi, Soldati and Tucci: even if only a few attention is paid to philological details, Biagi’s work suggest to what extent a painstaking exploration of Linder’s correspondence with Italian publishers and authors – and especially if a dialogue is created with authors’ personal archives – would bring out valuable data on the writing and publishing history of the works (both published and unpublished) of the late 20th century, also providing new hermeneutical hints to foster research both from a literary critics perspective and with a philological and ecdotical approach.
For more references on Erich Linder, visit the devoted page on the FAAM website.