Ernesto Ferrero has died after a long illness. He was 85 years old and a sophisticated man with style, a great cultural organizer. Everyone remembers him as the Lord of Books, because all aspects of this vast world appear in his biography. Ferrero was a bit of everything: publisher, writer, literary critic, translator. And in each of these areas he left his mark and his legacy. His name is particularly associated with the Einaudi publishing house and the book fair, which he directed from 1998 to 2016 and which today sees his role model as a “signpost for the years to come”.
Ferrero was born on May 6, 1938 in Turin and began his career at Einaudi in 1963 as head of the press office, later becoming literary director and finally editorial director from 1984 to 1989. He was also general secretary of Bollati Boringhieri, editorial director of Garzanti and literary director of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore. He has written many books of fiction – including the most recent “Francis and the Sultan”, published by Einaudi in 2019 – essays, memoirs and children’s books. His latest book, Italo, published a few days ago, is dedicated to Calvino on the occasion of his 100th birthday. In 2000 he won the Strega Prize with N., which reconstructs Napoleon’s exile on Elba.
As a literary critic, he worked not only on Calvino, but also on Emilio Gadda and Primo Levi. As a translator, he introduced Italians to the works of Céline, Flaubert and Perec. He has been working with La Stampa for a long time. He was honorary president of the Primo Levi International Study Center in Turin and president of the juries of various literary prizes, and he was a member of the steering committee of the Strega Prize. In 2012, the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano awarded him the honor of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
“His vision and his work,” says the book fair, “have transformed the International Book Fair, which he led from 1998 to 2016, into a place of encounter, dialogue and discussion between authors, readers and readers, a space in which the love of …” Reading and knowledge have created an ever larger community year after year.” The President of the Italian Publishers Association Innocenzo Cipolletta. recalls that Ferrero “wrote important pages in the history of Italian publishing”, while Adei, the association of independent publishers, pays tribute to “the sophisticated intellectual and great friend of the book”. “A master, a cultivated man, a great writer dies. From today on, everyone who loves books will be a little lonelier. The only thing that can alleviate the sadness is the belief that his example and his passion will never leave us,” says Giulio Biino, President of the Readers’ Circle Foundation. “I mourn the loss of a friend, a profound, generous and sensitive intellectual who loved words and the world, a kind and wise man,” comments Elena Loewenthal, director of the foundation.
The mayor of Turin, Stefano Lo Russo, speaks of “an intellectual who dedicated his life to books, a keen observer of the world, a man of profound culture who contributed to making the book fair great and international”. “His death leaves a great void and leaves an important legacy for us: he contributes to strengthening and spreading Italian culture in our country, just as he did throughout his life,” noted the Minister of Public Administration and Senator of Forza Italy, Paolo Zangrillo.
Ferrero’s farewell will take place on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. in the Madonna del Pilone church in Turin.
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