Publishing

This chapter covers the publishing context of seven Pirandello’s novels and we argue for the importance of analysing his publishing landscape to delineate some key turning points in the evolution of the Italian publishing world and in the process of canonization of a national author. By looking at Pirandello’s publishing context, we note that if the playwright achieved international recognition while allowing himself and his theatre to become more and more experimental, the novelist instead followed a more conventional pathway towards national canonization. We show how the history of Pirandello’s choice of publishers and of their responses to his works reflects that of the Italian publishing industry: his consolidation as a national author proceeds alongside his narrative experimentations. Moreover, we details how Pirandello’s publishing trajectory followed an ascending trajectory moving from his early works appearing in literary journals, to becoming an author for the leading Milanese Fratelli Treves and for the Florentine Bemporad. Finally, we illustrate the publishing strategies through which he was consecrated as a national author with the Mondadori Ominibus, including the blessing of the Minister for Popular Culture Dino Alfieri in 1937 in the preface to the Bibliografia di Pirandello, published by Mondadori