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| Torre Crawford, photo by A. C. Cappi |
American writer Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was a bestselling author in the late XIX-early XX. century. Today he's remembered mostly for his gothic stories, a comparatively small part of his works. Born in Tuscany, he established himself in Southern Italy, living in Sant'Agnello, Campania, and spending his summers in San Nicola Arcella, Calabria. Here he used to live in a 16th century tower that turned out to be the setting for one of the most celebrated gothic stories ever, For the Blood is the Life; since then, the tower is known as Torre Crawford.
In 2019, 110 years after his death, someone in the Calabrian town and elsewhere in Italy volunteered to create a literary contest - open to writers in Italian language - and a festival inspired by F. M. Crawford.
The first edition of Premio Torre Crawford was celebrated in San Nicola Arcella on September 19th, 2020. taking advantage of a pause in the pandemic lockdown: winners of the contest, writers and performers came to town. I edited a book in Italian which includes my translation of Crawford's story set in the town - For the Blood is the Life - a novelette by horrow/thriller top writer Cristiana Astori and the selected short stories by contestants, all inspired by the title of Crawford's story. For those who can read Italian, the book Perché il sangue è la vita (Oakmond Publishing) is available both for kindle and as an actual book on Amazon all over the world.
The second edition of Premio Torre Crawford is taking place in September 10th- 11th-12th, 2021. Guests include writer Alda Teodorani, about whom director Dario Argento declared "her stories feel like my deepest nightmares" and whose work is studied in European and American universities; master film director Aldo Lado; writer-actress Giada Trebeschi and musician-actor Giorgio Rizzo, whose short film Mia won in May 2021 at the Cineville Calcutta Global Cinefest: you can see it here. It almost seems (somehow) inspired by the same theme as tihis year's literary contest.
Because this year the Premio Torre Crawford contest and subsequent book are based on a quote from Crawford's story By the Waters of Paradise: "Falling in love with a ghost." The short story collection Innamorarsi di un fantasma will be soon available on Amazon for kindle and on paper from Oakmond Publishing, and will include my Italian translation of Crawford's abovementioned story, a short story by Alda Teodorani and fourteen short stories by the winners of the literary contest.
The following is a piece I wrote about F. M. Crawford in summer 2020 for the Italian blog Borderfiction Zone.
It was his destiny to become a genre writer and a sui generis writer. His father was American artist Thomas Crawford, one of whose statues decorates the Washington DC Capitol. Thomas moved to Rome in 1835 and in 1844 married Louisa Ward, (sister of American poet Julia Ward, known for her antislavery position and the text for Battle Hymn of the Republic). The Crawfords had four children. Three of them would dedicate themselves to literature: Anne Crawford von Rabe (b. 1846), Mary Crawford Fraser (b. 1851) and Francis Marion Crawford, born in Bagni di Lucca, Tuscany, in 1854.
Francis Marion's education was international: he studied in the US, in Cambridge, Britain, in Heidelberg, Germany and in Rome, at La Sapienza university. His family was protestant, but he became a catholic in 1880 and in 1884 married Elizabeth Berdan (in a French church in Istanbul, I read somewhere). Meanwhile he had spent two years in India and when he was back in 1882, he had published his first novel, Mr. Isaacs, based on this experience Success led him to keep on writing. He lived in Italy since 1883: first in Sorrento, then in Sant’Agnello (Napoli) at Villa Crawford. Later in San Nicola Arcella (Cosenza) he aquired an ancient Spanish tower which would be named Torre Crawford after him. From time to time he crossed the ocean to lecture in the US. During one of this trips, he caught a lung illness that would undermine his health forever.
At the top of his career, he had sold an extimated 600.000 copies, becoming a bestselling author of his time. His vision of literature was one of intelligent entertainment. He was not ashamed of dealing with adventure, love or mystery. He considered books as pocket-size theatre.
His work in superantural fiction would even influence H. P. Lovecraft, a reader of his. Crawford's bibliography includes historical novels and several books set in Italy, getting him close to writers of the Italian "Verismo" current. He died in 1909, leaving a legacy of over fifty books and four plays.
One of his best known stories was written and set in San Nicola Arcella in 1905: For the Blood is the Life, a title taken from the Bible. It's one of the world's most famour vampire stories, more exactly female vampire stories. It should be noted that another famous stories of this kind was written by his sister Anne Crawford, who had published in 1891 A Mystery of the Campagna.
While in Anne's story, as well as in the previous Carmilla by Le Fanu (1872) the vampire has ancient origins, in For the Blood is the Life we witness the birth of the creature; before becoming a predator, she's a victim herself, of a murder committed to hide a theft: one of the many elements of social criticism in the story. It might be possible that, while writing about the rules of rural Italy - with arranged marriages and economic marginalization - he was also thinking about his American middle-class readers.
As it frequently happens in gothic stories, For the Blood is the Life is developed on two different narrative levels, the one of the narrator and the one of the narration: present, when Crawford himself nonchalantly explains to his guest on top of the tower the mysterious phenomenon they see; and past, up to the innatural love story between Angelo - a stranger in his own town - and Cristina, an independent, unconventional girl who becomes a damned in spite of herself but still keeps an innocente of her own. Sexual innuendos are evident but understated, with a modesty somehow both catholic and victorian. Nevertheless, the story maintains an extremely modern value, as classics always do.
Coming soon: F. M. Crawford's Italian legacy
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