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Beat Bible: Beat & Pieces and Beat Books
Introduction by Paolo Tonini. Text by Fernanda Pivano.
406 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2007
13 people want to read
About the author
Fernanda Pivano
175 books26 followersFernanda Pivano was an Italian writer, journalist, translator and critic.
Pivano was born in Genoa in 1917. When she was a teenager she moved with her family to Turin where she attended the Massimo D'Azeglio Lyceum. There she met Cesare Pavese, who introduced her and her classmate Primo Levi to American literature. In 1941 she received a laurea (doctoral degree) with a thesis on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, which earned her a prize from the Center for American Studies in Rome. In 1943 she obtained a second degree in philosophy. In the same year she completed her first translation, the Italian edition of the Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters for Einaudi.
In 1948, Pivano met Ernest Hemingway. It turned out to be the beginning of an intense professional relationship and friendship that would last until Hemingway's death in 1961. In 1949 Pivano married designer and architect Ettore Sottsass and moved to Milan, where she would live for the rest of her life. Pivano made her first trip to the United States in 1956 and throughout her professional life she contributed to the diffusion of the most significant American writers in Italy,
She is remembered to have had very intimate friendships with the writers popularised in Italy and with she work with as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Neal Cassady, Ezra Pound, Charles Bukowski, Bob Dylan. Chuck Palahniuk and many others.
She also worked with various Italian beat writers, with LGBTQ+ activist Mario Mieli and with singer/songwriter Fabrizio De André.
She published many studies on American literature, two novels and two volumes of diaries.
Pivano was born in Genoa in 1917. When she was a teenager she moved with her family to Turin where she attended the Massimo D'Azeglio Lyceum. There she met Cesare Pavese, who introduced her and her classmate Primo Levi to American literature. In 1941 she received a laurea (doctoral degree) with a thesis on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, which earned her a prize from the Center for American Studies in Rome. In 1943 she obtained a second degree in philosophy. In the same year she completed her first translation, the Italian edition of the Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters for Einaudi.
In 1948, Pivano met Ernest Hemingway. It turned out to be the beginning of an intense professional relationship and friendship that would last until Hemingway's death in 1961. In 1949 Pivano married designer and architect Ettore Sottsass and moved to Milan, where she would live for the rest of her life. Pivano made her first trip to the United States in 1956 and throughout her professional life she contributed to the diffusion of the most significant American writers in Italy,
She is remembered to have had very intimate friendships with the writers popularised in Italy and with she work with as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Neal Cassady, Ezra Pound, Charles Bukowski, Bob Dylan. Chuck Palahniuk and many others.
She also worked with various Italian beat writers, with LGBTQ+ activist Mario Mieli and with singer/songwriter Fabrizio De André.
She published many studies on American literature, two novels and two volumes of diaries.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 23, 2014
My feelings toward this 'bible' are quite ambivalent:
On one hand, I love Ginsberg's photos and notes - how they bring some of my favorite writers to life - and I think Beat Books is a brilliant encyclopedia of beat literature. To me that's a 5/5.
On the other hand, I was definitely not a fan of Pivano's text in Beat&Pieces as her scattered anecdotes confused me rather than paint a clearer picture of the beat era. In certain places I even felt like the only point of her sharing a memory was to make it known that she had been there.
However, I might have been too critical reading the book simply because I had expected something else. I had thought it to be a more matter-of-fact account of the lives of the Beat writers and of the period in general - and instead it turned out to be memoirs sporadically combined with professional knowledge.
That said, even if I hadn't been disappointed from the start I still do not like Pivano's writing style and would only rate it 1/5. Which leaves my overall rating at 3/5...
On one hand, I love Ginsberg's photos and notes - how they bring some of my favorite writers to life - and I think Beat Books is a brilliant encyclopedia of beat literature. To me that's a 5/5.
On the other hand, I was definitely not a fan of Pivano's text in Beat&Pieces as her scattered anecdotes confused me rather than paint a clearer picture of the beat era. In certain places I even felt like the only point of her sharing a memory was to make it known that she had been there.
However, I might have been too critical reading the book simply because I had expected something else. I had thought it to be a more matter-of-fact account of the lives of the Beat writers and of the period in general - and instead it turned out to be memoirs sporadically combined with professional knowledge.
That said, even if I hadn't been disappointed from the start I still do not like Pivano's writing style and would only rate it 1/5. Which leaves my overall rating at 3/5...
Displaying 1 of 1 review