2013 Essays

Matilde Serao

Trivelli, Anita

An Italian writer and journalist who was born in Patrasso, Greece, to a Greek mother and Neapolitan father, an anti-Bourbon exile, Matilde Serao’s relentless and eclectic writing was distinguished by her extraordinarily committed professionalism. She cofounded several newspapers in Rome and Naples with Edoardo Scarfoglio, whom she married in 1885. For years, they were the most brilliant and followed couple in Italian journalism. After divorcing her husband, Serao established her own daily, the Neapolitan Il Giorno (1904), which she headed until her death. She was the first Italian woman, and until recently the only woman, to run a newspaper in Italy.