Posthumous Diary
Encyclopedia
Posthumous Diary is a series of poems attributed to the Italian
poet Eugenio Montale
which first appeared in full in 1996 (see 1996 in poetry
). It was purported to be conceived as a literary time-bomb carried out with the help of a young fan, Annalisa Cima.
In 1969 Montale began to give a poem to Cima at each meeting. In 1979 he divided the poems into eleven envelopes. Ten (numbered I to X) contained six poems each, while the eleventh contained another packet of six poems (numbered XI) as well as eighteen additional poems for three further envelopes. Montale entrusted the collection to Cima under the condition that they would not appear until after his death.
In 1986 the Schlesinger Foundation began issuing a limited edition series of booklets, numbered I to XI, for each group of six poems. A twelfth volume appeared in 1996 with the remaining eighteen poems, and in the same year followed a collection of the entire series published by Mondadori.
The work immediately caused a scandal in Italian literary circles. Some critics believed that the poems were composed by Cima out of conversations with Montale, while others believed Cima had forged them outright. Maria Corti, a professor of philology at the University of Pavia to whose library Montale had donated most of his papers, publicly stated that Montale had told her about the poems, which he intended as a practical joke on his critics. The critic Dante Isella thinks that this work is not authentic.
Posthumous Diary was translated into English by Jonathan Galassi
and published in 2001.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
poet Eugenio Montale
Eugenio Montale
Eugenio Montale was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975.- Early years :...
which first appeared in full in 1996 (see 1996 in poetry
1996 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* National Poetry Month was established by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996 as way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States.* The movie Dead Man, written and...
). It was purported to be conceived as a literary time-bomb carried out with the help of a young fan, Annalisa Cima.
In 1969 Montale began to give a poem to Cima at each meeting. In 1979 he divided the poems into eleven envelopes. Ten (numbered I to X) contained six poems each, while the eleventh contained another packet of six poems (numbered XI) as well as eighteen additional poems for three further envelopes. Montale entrusted the collection to Cima under the condition that they would not appear until after his death.
In 1986 the Schlesinger Foundation began issuing a limited edition series of booklets, numbered I to XI, for each group of six poems. A twelfth volume appeared in 1996 with the remaining eighteen poems, and in the same year followed a collection of the entire series published by Mondadori.
The work immediately caused a scandal in Italian literary circles. Some critics believed that the poems were composed by Cima out of conversations with Montale, while others believed Cima had forged them outright. Maria Corti, a professor of philology at the University of Pavia to whose library Montale had donated most of his papers, publicly stated that Montale had told her about the poems, which he intended as a practical joke on his critics. The critic Dante Isella thinks that this work is not authentic.
Posthumous Diary was translated into English by Jonathan Galassi
Jonathan Galassi
Jonathan Galassi born in Seattle, Washington, is the President and Publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, one of the eight major publishers in New York. He began his publishing career at Houghton Mifflin in Boston, moved to Random House in New York, and finally, to Farrar, Straus & Giroux. He...
and published in 2001.