If we want to talk about prolific authors, we cannot fail to mention a writer and journalist, certainly more a journalist than a writer, with such a fertile vein that he left behind a hundred books and a few thousand articles. A name today almost completely unknown to everyone, except those who have made journalism their profession, or mission, and who are very old, and some unwitting inhabitant of some street in the Verona area: Arnaldo Fraccaroli. And Arnaldo Fraccaroli is the protagonist of the 30th and last episode of the series of the best-selling Italian authors.
A great reporter, but…
He was an extremely capable journalist, one of those whose pen wrote by itself, it was enough to tell him the subject and the words came down one after the other, with the astonishing ability to best represent what was required and, if anything, to illuminate the character, the environment, the scenario with a phrase, a name or an adjective.
This is what makes a journalist great, and if he knows how to transpose this gift of his into the novel, it makes him an excellent writer. Fraccaroli had this talent, at least in journalism, like few others, it is no coincidence that Indro Montanelli greatly esteemed him and considered him his master; and many other journalists of those times, from Barzini to Ojetti to Vergani, did not hesitate to count him among the greatest of the first half of the twentieth century.
… a mediocre writer
The story is different with regard to fiction, where it did not reach the optimal levels of journalism, indeed, it remained far from it. In fact, his prose, while attractive, brilliant and sure to catch on readers, so much so that it produced some of the best sellers of the period, was unable to undermine reality that much, to pervade it and represent it as effectively as it happened in his articles. He lacked that depth that Simenon had.
It was felt that it still took a while to bite into the material, that one last flick was needed. But this would have required more time and attention, a deeper concentration, and he who had to compose the article for the newspaper at the same time, or any other writing, let it go and was satisfied with what he had jotted down, so for the masses it was just fine.
Indeed, he would have run the risk of losing those readers who make up the big numbers. And never mind if all this wasn't enough for the glory of literature. He probably didn't even think about it, perhaps aware that the great novelist's aptitude did not have it and even if he had wanted to bring it out and then develop it, it would have cost him time and effort, taking them away from journalism, his first passion.
And therefore he would have run the risk of jeopardizing that role of "prince" journalist and commercially successful writer that he had won, with all the advantages that this gave him. And for what then? To appear in some future literary history, if at all? No! In his own mind he didn't think it was worth it at all.
An endless production
After all, to someone who was able to pass from a tragic and funereal subject, such as a war front, where he was physically present and recounted the dramatic events in great detail, to a brilliant narration, such as that of a comedy or a novel that he wrote in the same days and in the same places, you couldn't ask for more.
If you want to write 34 novels, 32 comedies, 16 travel reports from all over the world, fifteen musical biographies, including 4 dedicated to Puccini, his great friend, 10 volumes of correspondence from the war fronts and in addition thousands of articles, how can you do if you don't follow those dizzying rhythms of writing, which are ill-suited to the composed depth to which he would have had to adapt to enter the empyrean of "literature" with full rights?
That last mile to literary greatness he gave up one way or another. And probably in his conditions we would all have done so. After all, he earned very high sums both in royalties for the books that sold like hot cakes and for theatrical texts, not counting the salary of correspondent of the "Corriere della sera", where he remained for 45 years, and the additional salaries for collaborations various in the same magazine or outside, such as subjects and screenplays for the cinema and so on. Wasn't that enough for him?
And speaking of cinema, how can we forget that it was precisely the title of one of his 1914 comedies that illuminated Fellini's mind, who took it up again half a century later in the most important film he made and absolutely one of the most important in all of Italian cinematography and world: Dolce vita.
The life
Arnaldo Fraccaroli was born in Villa Bartolomea, in the province of Verona, in 1882, into a poor family that couldn't let him study. Little more than a boy, he works as a delivery boy in a local printing house.
Also due to the contiguity of the work environment, he begins to write a few pieces for a humorous newspaper of the city, then for other city newspapers of Padua and Venice, especially on theatrical subjects.
In fact, this is the environment to which he feels drawn, so much so that at the age of 16 he is already credited with a two-act drama and the following year a comedy, a genre that best suits his personality, more suited to brilliant and playful representations. than to the tragic ones.
In the years preceding the outbreak of the First World War, some of his works were performed in theaters in Northern Italy, always sold out.
His light and light-hearted tone appeals to the public, amuses them, reassures them and even if in the end it lacks that depth that critics immediately grasp, starting with Renato Simoni, his great friend and admirer, but not unaware of his limitations, the box office not only is it not affected by it, but it even thrives on it.
Entry into journalism
And it is precisely Renato Simoni, journalist, critic, playwright, screenwriter, librettist, among other things the future co-author of the libretto of the Turandot, to present him to the director of the "Corriere della sera", where he has been collaborating since 1903, Luigi Albertini. He was precisely looking for some young people to enhance and with whom to rejuvenate his daily life a little and beat the competition.
And since as far as journalism is concerned, there is nothing to complain about Fraccaroli, his ability to process the requested topic quickly makes him immediately appreciated by Albertini and at just 27 he enters the major national newspaper on a permanent basis. It is certainly no small thing for a young man who has not studied and who has made up for the lack of school and university education as a self-taught man.
Become a "special envoy"
In the Milanese newspaper Fraccaroli makes a certain apprenticeship, like everyone else, but year after year his talents stand out and his prestige within the newspaper increases. He already gave excellent proof of himself during the Libyan war, as a special envoy, so much so that his articles were immediately collected in volumes and published by Treves in 1913, who was then the largest publisher in the country.
During the First World War he becomes the one who knows how to tell it best of all, from the very first phase, even before Italy enters the conflict, given that from the Austro-Russian front in Galicia in 1914 he sends truly illuminating pieces, which bring the reader in that gloomy scenario, almost as if he were witnessing us live.
The same script is repeated later, when he moves in the wake of our troops and describes almost directly the main events of the conflict, even the most bitter ones, such as the defeat of Caporetto. But his wanting to know, this following the events in person to the end, up to the clashes with the enemies, did not go unnoticed, earned him a very high following of acclaim, and he was also awarded a medal of valor for having given up his personal safety in order to witness closely the dramas of the conflict.
A long career all over the world
Having become one of the principal signatures of the "Corriere", Fraccaroli, or the Fraka, as it is sometimes signed and as it is amicably called, travels the world, and tells what is happening on every continent, how everything is changing at a dizzying pace.
He is among the first to fly on an airship and on airplanes, to interview the most important personalities of the time, to attend the most sensational events, making faithful testimony to the readers. And even when the event isn't so striking, he always manages to find that detail that makes it seem really important, worthy of being told and read with pleasure by the public.
The first to tell us about the new America
Correspondence from America is much appreciated, of which continent is the first to represent its new lifestyle. He was already in Hollywood in the XNUMXs and describes the new type of girl in a bubbly and vivacious way like a sparkling cocktail, that American girl who would later become the reference model for the entire Western world. And underneath also oriental, with what this adjective evokes and means.
And the title of one of his novels is enough to understand it: The paradise of girls, or American girls, released in 1929, with a public success bordering on 100.000 copies in 15 years of sales.
As a writer? A little less…
However, the transition from journalist to writer is not easy. It is true that he publishes novels and short stories with extreme ease that excel for a long time in the windows of booksellers. And the first title in this sense is Coriolanus wants to be happy, a novel released in 1932 which one year after its release had already reached 100.000 copies and 10 in the following 250.000 years, such as to be among the best sellers of the period, on a par with the books by Da Verona and Pitigrilli which those years shared, together with very few others, the favors of the general public.
But this great best seller, let's face it, was liked by the masses, but it was worth little. And in the face of facts it would not have stood up to any comparison with what was coming out in those same years of infinitely better products, such as, for example Ilia and Albert by Angelo Gatti, released a few months later. An abyss between the two novels, even if Fraccaroli's sold much more.
Coriolanus wants to be happy
He goes there, and his wealthy friend introduces him to the most exclusive club in the capital, frequented only by members of the high aristocracy and the most prominent personalities. Here a noble lady falls madly in love with him. She is a riot.
Indeed, Coriolanus seems to have achieved the happiness he was looking for: he is successful with women, lives like a great lord and lacks for nothing. What more could you want? But suspicious of some circumstances, he investigates more deeply the nature of this club, and discovers that it is a brothel, and the countess who has fallen in love with him is just a prostitute, who with clients assumes the role of aristocratic chaste who fell madly in love with him. . And so…, for wanting to know the truth, Coriolanus loses his happiness.
A book to make you laugh from all points of view, but which then hit the mark and reached that truly stratospheric circulation, for our asphyxiated publishing market. A comic operetta story, which brings Fraccaroli closer to what Pitigrilli wrote in that period, also acclaimed by readers.
A vast but inconsistent production
And the titles are enough to prove it: 20 crazy short stories but not so much e If you play with love in 1937, Seven women around the world in 1938, These too are matte, but though in 1940, More and more crazy with pepper and salt and in 1942 These other crazy girls laugh and scratch of 1946 which obtained conspicuous editions in those fatal and war-torn years. But underneath there was nothing!
Precisely because of his lightness and ease of writing and inventiveness, Fraccaroli, a great frequenter of young and beautiful women, also works for the cinema, for which he composes subjects and screenplays, then made by directors of the caliber of Mario Camerini, Gianni Franciolini and Carmine Gallone.
Withdrawal
After the Second World War he returns to his work as a journalist in the "Corriere", but the world that he had been able to represent so well in his articles has now disappeared and he feels he is a survivor.
In the new society his way of writing no longer holds, and then, also given the economic solidity he has achieved with his work, he sets aside, retires to private life. After a few years, seriously ill, he died in 1956, at the age of 74, not before signing the story and screenplay for a new film by Mario Landi, "We are all Milanese".
He left a large part of his huge inheritance to charity, demonstrating that generosity of soul that those who frequented him had always known, when he had never backed down when it came to helping someone.
These are certainly the acts that make a character great, more than a thousand best sellers!
