Interview: Giana Anguissola

Today, I am delighted to be able to bring you something unusual, a virtual interview with Giana Anguissola, a well-known Italian writer still widely regarded as the queen of children’s literature. Giana Anguissola was born in Piacenza in 1906 and died in Milan in 1966. Since Mrs Anguissola is no longer with us and we had no spirit medium (!), we had to construct this interview with the help of a biography about her life. This is “Giana Anguissola, rediscovering a great kid’s writer”, namely, “Giana Anguissola, alla riscoperta di una grande scrittrice per ragazzi”, by Claudia Camicia and Anna Maria de Majo published by Mursia.

This author deserves to be better known by foreign readers, not least because her professional and personal history covers one of the most interesting periods in Italian history. But now, let’s listen to the words of Giana Anguissola and rediscover one of the great children’s writers.

Mrs Anguissola, I am very happy we could do this interview

Thank you so much, but it’s my pleasure to talk about my books and my life with you.

Thanks, Mrs Giana Anguissola, shall we start with the questions?

Yes!

I know you studied to become a teacher, but you chose another career, writer and journalist.

To tell the truth, I was very much torn between being a teacher and a writer, because in my time, women could do only two, or rather three, jobs: wife, mother and teacher.

Why did you prefer journalism and writing?

When a person chooses to do a kind of work, it is no easy to explain the reasons that led her to do that. I can only say that I always believed in what I wanted to do in my life.

But you were also a wife and a mother.

Sure, although it fitted in well with my work and professional role. Indeed, in 1933 I married my colleague Rinaldo Kufferle who was an author at the same publisher where I worked. We had an only son, Riccardo.

Hence, you were a very modern woman for your epoch. However, in your books readers can still find a dash of traditional values, such as, for instance, the role of women inside the family.

During my career, I wrote 20 books for adults and 30 for children. In my work I always wanted to show a certain type of social environment in order that readers could understand the great changes in Italian society.

In Violetta la timida [The Shy Violet], one character shouts that the girl must be a housewife or a teacher at most, while Violetta decides to work as a journalist. Is there a bit of your life in there?

Authors always bring a bit of their life into their stories.

Why did you choose to write more children’s books instead of literature for adults?

I was more interested to provide my young readers healthy ethical values. I went through two world wars during my life and saw the rise and fall of fascism and thereafter the new rise of democracy. I think kids need to be driven to face the troubles and changes of life.

Your books don’t only discuss ethical values, but also economic conditions, for instance, in Priscilla, a poor girl in dire straits (her father is unemployed), you emphasise the importance of having money. According to you, is money important also for authors?

Each job deserves to be paid. Human beings don’t live in Eden like Eve and Adam. On earth, everything has a value and needs to be bought. But I don’t mean you buy also human life or our feelings, but only what you need to live, namely clothes, food and other stuff, even books. For example, to keep myself, I also worked as a dress designer at the Scala Theatre.

I know you have always disapproved of bad literature or books written only to be sold. But does this contradict the principle that money is important?

! Worthwhile values can be built up only with good work – excellent work!

Exactly because they are excellent they deserve payment. For me, money is necessary, but it is also the right reward for all those that create their own work every day. Instead, I see only too many bad works made only to be sold.

I know you once made a famous remark to your publishers defending good books and criticising books made only to be sold. Can you repeat it for us, please?

Yes, I can with pleasure. When publishers said that they wanted books written firstly to sell, I replied: Also cocaine is sold but it kills the human body!

What a wonderful thought! But now I would say to you: is there a relationship between journalism and literature?

There is, for me. I started my job writing for the magazines of the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera (Corriere dei Piccoli, La Domenica del Corriere, La Lettura).

Journalism is not only information but also writing. And information must always be well written.

What is the secret of writing a good book or a good article?

The secret is that there are no secrets. Every writer is unique and has his or her personal talent. Writing comes from the heart and does not care about marketing or sales, even though your hard work deserves to be paid for, always and any way! Check your grammar, style and punctuation, but remember to create your own style and be brave and bold as I was at sixteen years, when I knocked on the door of the Corriere della Sera to write my articles and my stories. When you write articles try to follow only the truth of the facts you want to tell.

Your books were also used for radio and for movies, such as your most famous book Gli Eredi del Circo Alicante [The Heirs of Circus Alicante] (1952). What do you think about the mass media?

I never hated the mass media, they were my work. Journals, radio and TV can be good means to drive people, above all young people, to mindfulness and capacity to make good decisions for themselves and others.

What do you think about the Internet and social networks?

They are worth using, provided that they convey good ethical values. But I guess that today there is the same problem: content and images posted only for sale purposes.

Do you want to invite young readers to buy your books through the web?

Certainly, I invite my young readers to buy and have a look at the following books: Il diario di Giulietta[Giuliet’s diary] (1954), Priscilla (1958),Io e mio zio [Me and my uncle] (1960), and Violetta la timida [The Shy Violet] (1963).

I’d also like to remind everybody that Mrs Anguissola won the Viareggio Prize with her debut novel ‘Il romanzo di molta gente‘ [The novel by many people] (1931) and in 1959, thanks to her book Priscilla, the Prize of the Council Presidency and a mention by the International Board on Books for Young People.