Another favorite of postwar readers
Alongside the figures of Guido Da Verona and of Pitigrilli that of Mario Mariani cannot pass in silence, as he was a polemicist, a philosopher and a courageous politician, an apostle of libertarian ideals, but also a very successful writer around the XNUMXs. This is why it is necessary to remember him together with the other two characters, despite the fact that he has sold less than them.
If for From Verona e Pitigrilli we can safely speak of 300.000 copies for the most successful books, for Mariani it must be said that his greatest best seller, The house of man, released in 1918, reached 70.000 copies. And for the other titles lower figures, oscillating between 30 and 60.000 copies. The sales volumes of his books were therefore lower; but in the three, four years after the end of the world war Mariani published about fifteen works, and adding up their circulations one arrives at an overall figure that places him among the most loved writers of the period.
A complex and controversial personality, between idealism and pornography
In addition to this, it must be remembered that Mariani was a very complex and controversial personality, on whom studies, debates and conferences are still held today. And there are very different positions.
Experts on the subject do not hesitate to attribute to him an original political vision, frankly and sincerely anti-fascist, which forced him to go into exile: a vision of the world and of life in some ways also anticipating trends that would then fully develop only fifty years later .
On the other hand, however, in his novels and short stories he made extensive use of that pornography which decreed his fortune among the readers of the time and which was not very different from that which in those same years could be seen in Da Verona e Pitigrilli. A certain perplexity about his figure is therefore understandable: the liberation of man from political, social and moral bonds, which was his mission and for which he courageously fought, is difficult to reconcile with pornography, in some cases tinged with child porn streaks.
The life
He was born in Rome on December 26, 1883, even if by some the birth is attributed to Solarolo, a small town in the province of Ravenna where the family came from, and in the following year, 1884. This could depend on the fact that the birth it happened during a temporary move of the parents to the capital for business, who returned to their country after the birth, and perhaps registered it in the new year, as often happened. His father was a wealthy landowner.
However, Mariani spent his childhood in Solarolo, until at the age of 14 he moved with him to Rome, where he studied to be an accountant, returning however frequently to the small Romagna town. Here he is reported several times to the police for the anarchist and socialist tendencies manifested, which in any case were typical of the family. Among other things, his father was a close friend of Pascoli, who must not be forgotten about him and had his problems with justice for political reasons.
But the young Mariani also shows intolerance towards his parent, who would like him to run the family farm with him. Instead in 1907, when he was 24 years old, he moved to Berlin as a correspondent for the Milanese "Il Secolo", then a prestigious and influential newspaper, competing with the "Corriere della sera" for supremacy in the country, which then went to the "Corriere".
He remained as a journalist for a few years in Germany, during which, among other things, he married, but the marriage did not last long, until at the outbreak of war he sided with Italy's intervention in the conflict and returned to participate in military operations. He is framed in the Alpini corps, reaches the rank of lieutenant, and for his valor he is also awarded a bronze medal for military valor, but someone claims silver.
Here comes success
It was during the war years that he composed one of his most significant books, Sott'la naja, Alpine life and warfare. He also publishes a philosophical essay, The return of Machiavelli, which even Benedetto Croce seems to have liked. But his debut as a narrator is due to the memory The house of man of 1918, which obtained a good success with the public, although not comparable, as we have just mentioned, to that of the true darling of the readers of the time, Guido Da Verona, who would soon be joined by the Pitigrilli in the hearts of readers.
In the last months of 1918 he joined the Propaganda Office of the army, and with other writers popular at the time or close to become, like Gino Rocca, Michele Saponaro, Salvator Gotta, Ferdinando Paolieri, Grazia Deledda and others, gives life to the magazine "La Trincea", distributed free along the front.
The collection of short stories The Teenagers brought a series of troubles with censorship. For this book considered an offense to indecency he served, entirely, 15 days in prison. Some have seen in this work a preview of Nabokov's Lolita themes. Today many consider Mariani an anti-litteram feminist.
Immediately after the war, a series of other books were published, among them The teenagers, The grimaces of the soul, Blood tears, Poor Christ, So for laughs, The little sisters, Purity, Repugnances and rebellions, Fine ladies, which bring its overall sales to high levels. For one of these works, The teenagers, a collection of short stories, was even tried for indecency and sentenced to 15 days in prison, which he served entirely, which had not happened either to Notari or following Pitigrilli, to which similar accusations were made.
This greater "severity" seems due to the fact that the protagonists are twelve-year-old girls, hence the title of the book, of which it describes spicy events in great detail. The writer justifies himself with the at least bizarre thesis that at that age in African countries they are already considered more mature than eight-year-old girls, considered sexually ready, and at twenty-eight even old. In our times some recognize in that book an anticipation of the themes of Lolita by Nabokov, written over 30 years later.
The magazines
It's a moment of great popularity, which prompted Mariani to also attempt the path of the periodical press, which a few years later, and perhaps taking his cue from himself, would also Pitigrilli with "The big names".
In 1919, while he was a permanent journalist at the "Messaggero" in Rome, he created the magazines "Novella" and "Comoedia”, to which he calls prestigious names to collaborate, among which are Marino Moretti, G.A. Borgese, Matilde Serao, Federico De Roberto, Ada Negri, Annie alive, and foreign authors of the caliber of Bernard Shaw and James Joyce.
He will direct the first magazine until the end of the 2000s, when he will sell it to the emerging publisher Angelo Rizzoli, under whom it will become "Novella XNUMX", still published today, while the second too, after some mishap, will later pass under the same publisher.
The clash with fascism
Mariani abhorred fascism and defined his compatriot Benito Mussolini: "the most nefarious man Italy has had since the nation was born, a depravator who has overturned and overturned all those moral values without which people must dissolve and to disappear". No less radical is his judgment on fascism, "the greatest shame of Italy, of Europe, of the twentieth century".
The new regime that is imposing itself in the country sees him in open and clear controversy. His positions against fascism were countless, and it did little good for him to have taken part in the war as a valuable fighter and to have received a medal.
His ideas, in which elements of socialism and anarchism are mixed, end up putting him in opposition to fascism, but also to communism. Not to mention the moderate or Catholic groups, to which her stories and his novels are enough to make them hostile. And with whom he would have had nothing in common anyway.
In essence, the writer appears as an isolated figure, not ascribable to any alignment, to any canonized ideology, one of which no party can fully claim membership. Perhaps a visionary, a maverick, a lone wolf: one who criticizes fascism and Mussolini, but also communism and Marx. And that even with socialism it shows elements of disagreement, so much so that it will give life to a particular socialist current defined as "voluntarist”. One in whose political vision, however, elements of Marx as of Nietzsche, of Stirner and even of D'Annunzio.
The abandonment of Italy
In 1926 he was induced, also due to the aggressions he suffered, to leave Italy and took refuge first in Switzerland and then in France. Here he resumed his polemic with the regime, he courageously continued to demonstrate his ideas of a socialism sui generis, and in 1927 he ended up being expelled from France as well.
He then takes refuge in Belgium where he remains until 1929, when he embarks for Brazil, where he starts a new family and has a son, Elio, born in 1934. He moves between Brazil and Argentina, collaborates with some newspapers and periodicals, reprints the works that made him famous in Italy, and he fought with great commitment among the numerous Italian immigrants for the return of democracy in his country.
One last attempt at home
In 1947, after the war, he returned to Italy with his family. He creates a movement, "The Alliance of Free Men" and a periodical, "Proletarian Unit", but does not have much following. The political and cultural debate in the country, very heated in those years, focuses on other issues, and he appears as an intruder, a figure extraneous to what are the terms of the political confrontation.
With the old publisher of many hits of 25 years before,the Sonzogno, develops the project to republish all his books, 24 volumes. But the operation does not achieve the desired result: those books are no longer able to excite readers, just as is happening to the other two writers with whom, as we said, he is compared: Da Verona and Pitigrilli. People's tastes have changed, and nostalgia-only operations can only meet with limited favor.
In June 1951 he therefore decided to return to South America, where he died a few months later, in November of that same year, in San Paolo, where his grave is still located.
After his death, total oblivion descended on him, even by critics and the most shrewd press. Only in recent years has there been a revival of interest in his figure both as a writer and as a politician, philosopher and polemicist, certified by the debates and conferences held, with uneven results, as we said at the beginning.
