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Excerpt from Idling in Italy: Studies of Literature and of Life
Nothing obstacled my pleasure so much when I first went to Italy as unfamiliarity with its literature. Every one who would add to his spiritual stature and his emotional equanimity by tarry in Italy should have some intimacy with the Bible, with mythology, and with Italian writers, especially the poets. I sought books about books but was not very successful in find ing them. Interpretative articles on men and books which are so common in British and American litera ture are exceptional in Italy. One who is ambitious to get even a bowing acquaintance with them must make the introduction himself. In 1918 an enter prising Italian, Signor A. T. Formiggini, attempted to supply such introduction by the publication of a literary review called l'italia Che Scrive, a monthly supplement to all the periodicals. He has had grat ifying success.
My purpose in publishing the essays on fictional literature in this volume is in the hope of awakening a larger interest in America in Italian letters and to aid in creating a demand for their translation into English. I shall be glad if they serve to orient any one who is bewildered by his first glance into the maze of Italian modern, improvisional literature.
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