Provenance and early years Emilio Cecchi was born in
Florence, second of the six recorded children of Cesare and Marianna Sani Cecchi. The family had their home in the city center among the narrow streets between the
Porta San Gallo and the
cathedral, but Cesare Cecchi came originally from the countryside: he worked in an
Ironmonger's store. Emilio's mother, like many Florentines, had her own little tailoring workshop. The family was close-knit and loving, but Cecchi would nevertheless look back later on a childhood scarred by tragedy. Annunziata, his elder sister, was seriously ill for many years and died of
tuberculosis in 1902. His father was devastated by the experience. Emilio Cecchi later wrote of how, when his father left his work, they would meet up and walk to the church where, for long hours, they would kneel together side by side working through their grief and - at least in the case of the boy - studying the details of the building's elaborate interior architecture. Back in Florence he became a regular presence in the
Gabinetto Vieusseux (library) where his energetic
autodidacticism was again to the fore. He discovered the works of
Gabriele D'Annunzio, a dominating presence in early twentieth century literature. He made sketches of a number of pictures that particularly interested him and took the opportunity to make the acquaintance of
Giani Stuparich and Diego Garoglio, who were teachers of
Giovanni Papini, and who provided him with advice on his further reading.
Columnist In 1906, Cecchi finally left Florence and relocated to Rome. He wrote for various Roman literary publications including, notably,
Athena and
Nuova Antologia. At this stage his stay in Rome was relatively brief, however, since he decided to study for a further academic qualification. Having studied "as a privateer" for his classics diploma from the
"Convitto nazionale statale Francesco Cicognini", he was able to enrol at the Literature Faculty of the
"Istituto di Studi Superiori". His student career provided an opportunity for more networking. New friends included
Scipio Slataper and the northerner
Carlo Michelstaedter. Another contemporary was
Giuseppe De Robertis. Cecchi did not pursue his studies to the point of graduation (although an
honorary degree which the institute conferred on him in 1958 may have implied a reassuring measure of retrospective recognition). Meanwhile, he continued to engage as a literary critic, at times focusing as much on Russian, German or English literature as on Italian. an artist and the daughter of a physician from
Poggibonsi a little town set in the wine country approximately midway between Florence and Siena. However, the couple now made their home not in
Tuscany but back in Rome. The marriage was followed by the births of their four children in 1912, 1913, 1914 and 1918.
In Rome Back in Rome, he contributed assiduously to
La Tribuna, a daily newspaper published between 1883 and 1946. He also had time to work for rival publications, of which probably the most significant, at least initially, was the weekly literary magazine
La Voce. However, he increasingly found himself in opposition to editorial decisions by the La Voce under its editor in chief, his fellow Florentine
Giuseppe De Robertis. Cecchi's article "False audacie" appeared in "Tribuna" on 13 February 1915. It robustly criticised Papini's "Cento pagine di poesia" (
"A hundred pages of poetry") and triggered a similarly robust reaction from Papini in La Voce on 28 February 1915. Further back-and-forth exchanges between the two, published respectively in "Tribuna" and "Voce", followed, and other literary commentators joined the fray. However, as 1915 progressed, larger political developments intervened. He also contributed to the Fascist daily
Il Tevere. on 28 June 1915, it was "Tribuna" that printed the first in a succession of reports by Emilio Cecci from the Austrian front. Meanwhile, his "History of nineteenth century English literature" (
"Storia della letteratura inglese nel secolo XIX") on which in one way or another he had been working since at least as far back as 1903, was published in Milan. He made good use of the opportunities. In England, he visited
Chesterton at his home in
Beaconsfield. During his months in England, Cecchi agreed an arrangement with the
Manchester Guardian and
Observer, two nationally distributed English newspapers of the political centre-left. He became a regular correspondent for The Guardian from Italy between 1919 and June 1925. His contributions, most of which were submitted in Italian and then translated by newspaper staff in England, generally appeared without attribution. The other six were
Riccardo Bacchelli,
Antonio Baldini,
Bruno Barilli,
Vincenzo Cardarelli,
Lorenzo Montano and A. E. Saffi. The
slaughter of war had triggered a widespread retreat from the wilder optimism
of the modernists. The "wise" (and in several cases strikingly young) men who created
La Ronda were engaged in a mission to return to older literary traditions, following the excesses of the
Avant-garde. Between 15 July 1921 and 30 November 1923 he was contributing a weekly column to
"Tribuna", in a section entitled "Libri nuovi e usati" (
"Books new and second-hand": The title was later recycled and used for a volume of Cecchi essays published in 1958.) Authorship of the Tribuna column was attributed by means of the pseudonym "Il Tarlo" (
"The bookworm"). In 1924 he also became a staff member at
Il Secolo, a daily national newspaper based in Milan, to which he contributed as literary critic, filling the shoes of the highly respected
Enrico Thovez as the latter fell terminally ill. It is worth bearing in mind that
the "manifesto" to which Cecchi added his signature was produced less than a year after the murder of
Giacomo Matteotti by fascist thugs had served notice that the relaxed attitude to the more unsavoury aspects of Fascism that had hitherto been mainstream among Italian intellectuals was perhaps not the easy option it might once have seemed. By 1935, however, the passage of time and
events in Germany had to some extent "normalised"
Fascist government. That year, Cecchi, entrapped according to one sympathetic source by the seductive lure of political power, agreed to accept the
Mussolini prize for literature, which he was awarded the next year. In the eyes of post-1945 critics Cecchi's political credibility was further compromised in July 1940, less than a month before, following much anguished speculation,
the government implemented a controversial decision to engage militarily in the Second World War, when he joined the
Royal Academy, widely seen by this time as a tool of government. Several sources mention the delight that Cecchi took in international travel, notably to
Great Britain and the
Netherlands. He travelled further in 1930 when he accepted an invitation to spend a year in
California as "Chair of Italian Culture" and teach at
Berkeley. He was able to explore the cultural life
San Francisco in some depth and also, before returning to Europe, satisfy a "longstanding desire" to get to know
Mexico. Other biographers insist that these are better understood as books of essays, following the pattern set by "Pesci rossi" (1920), which just happen to be concerned with his travels. Perhaps the most successful of these is "Messico" (
"Mexico"), a compilation of some of the best essays submitted to
Corriere della Sera during his time in North and Central America. In it, he shares his fascination with the
remote and shadowy civilisation that once existed in Mexico. Less satisfactory is his book "Et in Arcadia" (1936), based on a lengthy visit through Greece in 1934: the book echoes the well-trodden tourist trail which many of his wealthier readers might already have worked through for themselves. A third "travel book", entitled "America amara" (1939) reproduced more of the articles he had provided to
Corriere della Sera during his American year in 1930/31, and complemented these with further essays based on a subsequent visit to the
American west coast undertaken by Cecchi during 1937/38. "Scrittori inglesi e americani" (
"English and American writers"), published in 1935 brought together a number of essays relating to the same themes. In the first edition, English authors predominated, but in subsequent versions, there were more American writers, reflecting Cecchi's discoveries in American literature during and following his year in
California. After an
abrupt change in Italian politics in 1943 Cecchi would insist that the commitment implicit in his more political actions under the
polarising Fascist régime had reflected his strong Italian patriotism rather than any sort of political endorsement of the Fascist government. Later biographers, while admiring his scholarly abilities and energies, and in personal terms sympathetic, have nevertheless felt it necessary to adopt an apologetic tone in respect of what many would construe as Cecchi's political misjudgements during the closing chapters of the
Mussolini era. During the
Second World War, Cecchi continued to live in Rome with his family. Travel was not easy, but in 1942 he nevertheless managed a trip to
Switzerland in order to attend the wedding of his daughter
"Suso" to the musicologist (and painter)
Fedele D'Amico.
Cinema In 1932 Ludovico Toeplitz of
Cines appointed Emilio Cecchi to the position of artistic director at the company's new
Rome studios. Cecchi had only recently returned from a year in
California, where he had seized the opportunity to study at close hand the latest developments in
Hollywood. He had been using his newspaper columns in Italy to write about the cinema, recognising the potential of the new art-form, and commending in particular the work of the young Italian movie directors
Alessandro Blasetti and
Mario Camerini. The appointment of a literary figure to such a position at
Cines was nevertheless an unusual move, signalling the possibility of new directions for the movie maker. Cecchi surrounded himself with "writers and artists" and moved decisively towards a greater emphasis on "arts films", but without neglecting the popular end of the market. Among commentators, a general improvement in the quality of the
studio's output was noted. A number of pioneering documentaries were also made on Cecchi's watch. However, Ludovico Toeplitz who had appointed him was finding himself under increasing pressure from the government, who were keen to take more of a "hands-on" role with respect to Italy's leading film studio. Toeplitz resigned his post in November 1933 (and emigrated shortly afterwards to England where he worked with
Alexander Korda). Cecchi left his job at
Cines very soon after Toeplitz, but he sustained an interest in cinema through and beyond the 1930s, producing for the appropriate specialist magazines lucid and critical movie reviews and related articles, with a particular focus - as before - on
American movies.
More war years During the
war years, Cecchi retained contact with friends and colleagues as far as possible. Visitors to the family home in Rome through this period included
Alberto Moravia,
Elsa Morante,
Leo Longanesi and
Vitaliano Brancati.
After 1945 Cecchi quickly re-established the disrupted connections that he had sustained with newspapers during the pre-war period. Readers were again interested in high-quality literary criticism. That same year, he was appointed an
academician of the Lincei. During the 1960s, Cecchi teamed up with
Natalino Sapegno to produce "Storia della letteratura italiana" (
"History of Italian Literature"), a nine-volume compendium published between 1965 and 1969. He authored many of the sections himself. == Recognition ==