Like an underground river. The editorial story of James Purdy in Italy

Abstract

James Purdy (1914–2009) was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet and playwright. Though later framed as ‘an authentic American genius’, his early books were rejected by major US publishing houses and his whole literary career followed a strange destiny. The paper traces back the history of his Italian translations and describes how the Italian publishing houses, despite the prejudices of the American critics, have contributed with their cultural activities to the spread of his novels and short stories in Italy.