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Primo Levi and Holocaust Memory in Italy, 1958–1963

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New Reflections on Primo Levi

Part of the book series: Italian and Italian American Studies ((IIAS))

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Abstract

A certain standard account of Primo Levi’s early career as a writer goes as follows: Survival in Auschwitz appears in 1947 with the small Turinese publisher De Silva, having been rejected by Einaudi, on the advice of Natalia Ginzburg and probably also Cesare Pavese. It is produced in a small print run, has a few positive reviews, but is then largely forgotten outside local circles. When Einaudi picks up and republishes the work, with minor modifications, in 1958, it is a significant success. Levi is persuaded, a short time thereafter, by friends such as the anti-Fascist jurist and historian Alessandro Galante Garrone, among others, to write further on his wartime experiences. The result is the publication of his narrative of return, The Reawakening, in 1963, an “Odyssey” to complement the “Iliad” of Survival in Auschwitz. If anything, The Reawakening is even more of a success, winning the first Campiello Prize, selling in large numbers, and swiftly being adopted as a book in schools.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge, UK

    Robert S. C. Gordon

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  1. Robert S. C. Gordon
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Risa Sodi Millicent Marcus

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© 2011 Risa Sodi and Millicent Marcus

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Gordon, R.S.C. (2011). Primo Levi and Holocaust Memory in Italy, 1958–1963. In: Sodi, R., Marcus, M. (eds) New Reflections on Primo Levi. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230119673_4

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