Writers' Fortune
There are writers who publish dozens of novels, get a good reception from readers, some slams by the famous critics, at least the one who finds the time and opportunity to deal with them, and then disappear, without a trace. And we gradually forget about them over the years. They do not appear in school literary histories, at most a few citations in university ones. Some degree theses are dedicated to them, some conferences, generally more local than national, some naming of streets, squares, libraries.
But no one, unless they are specialists, knows who that particular writer was. And when over time one of their works runs out in the catalogs of the publishing house it is no longer reprinted, unless some bold publisher, advised by the expert on duty, does not attempt a difficult and, financially speaking, risky repechage.
These writers have only filled, in their time, the days and the imagination of readers, they made themselves loved, which is certainly not a little, indeed it is a lot, but oblivion inevitably falls on them. A time like today.
Well, this was, among many others, the fate of Anton Giulio Barrili, a storyteller (and much more) of the late nineteenth century, who deserved a front row seat in the "consumer literature" of his period. He went through the stages of popularity, and then gradually disappeared, together with the generations who appreciated and loved him, in that continuous alternation of writers and readers.
The life
Anton Giulio Barrili was born in Savona in 1836. He completed his studies regularly and after graduating in literature he devoted himself entirely to journalism. First he founded and composed alone a weekly, "L'occhiale", then he collaborated with other Genoese newspapers.
At the age of twenty-four he joined a newspaper, of which he was then entrusted with the direction: the "Movimento". In a short time he manages to make it one of the most authoritative voices of the peninsula.
In 1874, at the age of 38, he founded and directed another newspaper, "Il Caffaro", achieving such positive results that his activity did not escape the attentive eye of the man who for a short but intense period became the editor of tip of the country: Angelo Sommaruga.
In the early eighties of the nineteenth century, this young Milanese publisher by birth, but Sardinian and then Roman by adoption, was proving to be a real editorial prodigy, and many famous authors, starting from Carducci and D'Annunzio, they are irresistibly attracted to it. In Barrili, the twenty-five-year-old publisher offers the direction of a weekly, "Literary Sunday", which the new director tackles with great enthusiasm. However, the experience did not last long, because the following year, 1885, the publishing and cultural empire of Sommaruga collapsed in a sensational way due to a series of very complex political-judicial events.
The Risorgimento and political struggle
Barrili then leaves again for new experiences. His passion for journalism always remains high and to defend the honor of the newspapers in which he writes he does not hesitate to sustain various duels, about twenty, during which he is also seriously injured.
But the commitment to the press did not remove him from "patriotic" ardor. In 1859, just twenty-three, he took part in the Second War of Independence. Later he embraces Garibaldi's ideals, and fights alongside the hero of two worlds.
In 1866 he was one of the thirty-eight thousand volunteers who followed Garibaldi in the third war of independence, and the following year he was again at his side in the unfortunate undertaking of Mentana, where he was seriously wounded.
He always remains one of the most convinced supporters of the hero of two worlds, perhaps he is even its secretary. Certainly he is the one who draws up some of the general's proclamations, thanks to the extremely happy and easy-going vein he is endowed with, refined in his long practice of journalism. And it was always him in 1882 who held the heartfelt funeral re-enactment, in Genoa and in other places.
In 1895 he published a memoir, With Garibaldi at the gates of Rome, in which he retraced with rare modesty the salient moments of his friendship with Garibaldi and the tragic, albeit glorious, events in which he had taken part alongside him.
The Approach to Literature
He arrives at literature, one could say, by "invitation" or by "challenge". In fact, it is said that one evening at the theater some kind ladies, who already esteemed him for his journalistic activity, after having read a story composed in 1865, Captain Dodero, begged him to write a good novel for the newspaper's appendix. And since the next day is Saint Cecilia, he decides to please them, naming his first novel with the name of the saint.
It was followed by many others, about sixty, almost all initially destined for the appendix of a newspaper, which then, given the excellent reception they receive from the public, especially female, pass on to publication in volume.
A graceful and pleasant writing
Writing is congenial to him, and the amount of his works abundantly testifies to it. To him the stories appear in his mind already defined, he just needs to put them on paper, almost as if he were writing under dictation. Every morning, he tells himself, before leaving the house, he jots down ten, twenty pages. And that seems to him the best way to start the day.
One evening Protonotari, director of the “Nuova Antologia”, the magazine founded by Gian Pietro Vieusseux, turned to him out of breath, because he had no novel to be printed the next day in the appendix of his magazine. Barrili regretfully replies that he doesn't have any novels in his drawer, and he is certainly not able to prepare for the next morning the twenty folders that the Protonotari is so desperately requesting from him. And so he discharges him in pain, but unable to please him. The next morning, however, the Protonotari found on his desk the twenty folders with which he would have started the novel Arrigo il Savio, from which the author would later also draw a comedy, Zio Cesare.
His writing, elegant, pleasant, captivating, typical of good nineteenth-century prose, adapts perfectly to the tastes of an audience that he, as a journalist and editor of newspapers, knows thoroughly and knows how to indulge and flatter. This is how countless stories are born, mostly of love, but also of adventure or memoirs, all rewarded by the favor of the public, which earn him, as the author himself confesses to a friend, "many thousand bills every year". And, to give you an idea, one thousand lire corresponds more or less to the annual salary of a civil servant. Among his most successful works we remember The elm and the ivy and Like a dream.
An extraordinary versatility
He knows how to pass from the adventure novel to the fantastic one, from the realistic one to the memoirist one, but the love stories are the ones that earn him the greatest following among readers and especially among female readers. His romantic stories always end happily, they don't have dramatic outcomes, they don't describe murky events or sinful loves, there are no perverse protagonists, but always righteous and good characters.
This allows him to carve out a prominent position in the sympathy of readers, well documented by the circulations it reaches. Released at the end of the nineteenth century, his most successful novels reached 70-80.000 copies in 1940. They are not the greatest successes of the period, which boast far more circulations, but they still denote a continuous and constant presence of Barrili in the country's publishing landscape.
A prominent presence also in teaching
Barrili is also dedicated to teaching. First as a high school teacher, then professor of Italian literature at the university. A great expert on Dante, he obtained the teaching due to the direct interest of Carducci, at the time a very influential figure in the assignment of university chairs.
In 1903 he also became rector of the University of Genoa. He enjoys the reputation of being much loved by the students, so much so that on the rare occasions when he is absent and unable to give lessons, there are long faces and sincere disappointment among his students.
political activity
A multifaceted personality, with a thousand interests and as many passions, capable of absolutely prohibitive work rhythms, cannot be missing, not even a political career. This is somehow prepared by the journalistic activity and by the intense patriotic ardor of which she had repeatedly shown.
In 1876, exactly at the age of forty, he took part in the decisive political elections, the ones that would lead to the success of Depretis' Left-wing alignment, in whose lists he presents himself. He surpasses the opposing candidate and obtains the seat in the constituency of Albenga, and for three years, until 1879, he sits on the benches of parliament. Then, disgusted by the corrupt national political climate, he resigned, which was however unanimously rejected. Resubmitted, on 14 December 1879 they were finally accepted. And he starts being a high school teacher. It's really funny to think about today's times!
He died in his summer residence in Carcare, in the province of Savona, in 1908, at the age of seventy-two. The town named the municipal library after him and still honors his memory with exhibitions and debates.
