In the 1930’s, detective novels published by Mondadori were a huge thrill for Italian readers, both in I Libri Gialli in bookshops, with their yellow jacket, and I Gialli Economici in newstands with a yellow cover.
But the fascist regime didn’t approve.
First: foreign mystery stories were regarded with suspicion as a dangerous product of anglo-saxon culture. Italy's only international friend was Hitler's Germany, from which the so-called "racial laws" were imported in 1938, first step toward the Holocaust. Both countries partnered - on the antidemocratic side, of course - in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) helping local dictator Franco rise to power and expanding fascism in Europe.
Second: you couldn’t set a detective novel in Italy, since the official line was that crime didn’t belong in our sunny country. News about crime in the media were censored and the "Monster of Sarzana" case (1937-38) was a big embarrassment, especially when the murderer turned out to be a 15-year-old named William - yes, an English name! - Vizzardelli, reportedly inspired by Dostojevskij's Crime and Punishment.
While reading a foreign detective novel was becoming suspicious, writing a detective novel was worse. It was not easy being a mystery writer in Italy in the Era Fascista (the "Fascist Age").
Augusto De Angelis, creator of Italy’s first literary serial police detective – Milan’s commissario De Vincenzis – didn’t share the views of the regime. But, due to his political opinions, he would later be labeled an antifascist, imprisoned and finally beaten to death in 1944. Not just because he was a mystery writer: my antifascist grandfather didn't write books, but he was beaten too and barely survived.
Another writer, Giorgio Scerbanenco – later the master of Italian noir literature – had to replace Milan with Boston as the location for his early libri gialli published by Mondadori. He had never been in the US, but he wasn’t allowed to write about murders in Italy.
In the end, readers were led to believe that no crime novel could ever be set in Italy. With e few exceptions, it would take almost sixty years to make them change their mind.
Meanwhile the Minculpop (the Ministry of Popular Culture) applied pressure on Mondadori, forcing the publisher to close the Gialli.
A few mystery novels by Rex Stout, De Angelis and others still appeared in other book series (for instance, in I Romanzi della Palma; a palmtree was the logo of Mondadori at the time), without fascist censors noticing them, but at last the country was "safe" from gialli.
Crowds cheered when in 1940 Mussolini decided to join his German friend in conquering the world and led Italy into self-destruction and death. Real death.
In 1946, with freedom and democracy, Il Giallo Mondadori was back in newsstands as a weekly magazine. Detective stories were a hot item again. But was there still a place for Italian authors, after so many years of fascist propaganda?
To be continued...
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