Helen Barolini

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Helen Barolini
Barolini in 2014
Barolini in 2014
BornHelen Frances Mollica
(1925-11-18)November 18, 1925
Syracuse, New York, U.S.
DiedMarch 29, 2023(2023-03-29) (aged 97)
Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSyracuse University
Columbia University
SpouseAntonio Barolini
ChildrenTeodolinda Barolini
Susanna Mengacci
Nicoletta Barolini
Website
www.helenbarolini.com

Helen Frances Barolini (née Mollica; November 18, 1925 – March 29, 2023) was an American writer, editor, and translator. As a second-generation Italian American, Barolini often wrote on issues of Italian-American identity.[note 1] Among her notable works are Umbertina (1979), a novel which tells the story of four generations of women in one Italian-American family; and an anthology, The Dream Book: An Anthology of Writings by Italian American Women (1985), which called attention to an emerging, and previously unnoticed, class of writers.

Biography

Early life and education

Helen Frances Mollica[1] was born on November 18, 1925, in Syracuse, New York,[2] to Italian-American parents. Her father was a local merchant.[3] Although her grandparents were Italian immigrants, Barolini spoke no Italian until she hired a tutor at Syracuse to teach her the language.[4]

Barolini graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University in 1947, received a diploma di profitto from the University of Florence in 1950, and earned a master's degree in library science from Columbia University in 1959.[3]

Career

After graduating from Syracuse, Barolini traveled to Italy, studying in Perugia and writing articles for the Syracuse Herald-Journal. It was there that she met and married the Italian writer, Antonio Barolini.[4] The couple lived in Italy for several years before moving to New York. She translated several of her husband's works into English, including "Our Last Family Countess" (1960) and "A Long Madness" (1964).[5]

Assisted by a grant from the

Premio Acerbi, an Italian literary prize, in 2008.[6] The novel is named for a fictional character who emigrates to the U.S. from Calabria.[3]

Her anthology, The Dream Book: An Anthology of Writings by Italian American Women (1985), received the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and the Susan Koppelman Award from the American Culture Association.[2] It was praised by novelists Alice Walker and Cynthia Ozick, and hailed as a major work by critic Jules Chametzky.[7] In an essay on Italian-American novelists, Fred Gardaphé writes, "Until The Dream Book appeared in 1985, Italian American women had not had the critics or literary historians who would attempt to probe their background, unlock the reasons of past silence, and acknowledge that they are finally present."[8]

Barolini's essays have appeared in the

Kenyon Review, the Prairie Schooner, and other journals.[3] Her essay collection, Chiaroscuro: Essays of Identity (1997), was named a Notable Work of American Literary Non-Fiction in The Best American Essays of the Century (2000),[9] and her essay, "How I Learned to Speak Italian," originally published in the Southwest Review, was included in The Best American Essays 1998.[4]

Barolini was an invited writer at

Westchester, New York.[2]
In 1988 she was invited to speak at York University in Toronto by Joseph Pivato, the M.A. Elia Chair in Italian-Canadian Studies.

Personal life and death

In 1950, she married Antonio Barolini.[3] The couple had three daughters. Teodolinda Barolini became a professor of Italian at Columbia University; Susanna Barolini married an Italian artist from Urbino, and moved to Italy;[4] and Nicoletta Barolini became an art director, also at Columbia. Antonio Barolini died in 1971.[1]

Helen Barolini died in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York on March 29, 2023, at the age of 97.[10][11]

Bibliography

Awards

Notes

  1. ^ How to count American immigrant generations is a subject of dispute. Some begin counting with the immigrants themselves; others begin with the first generation born in the United States. Using the latter method, an American such as Barolini, whose grandparents were natives of Italy and whose parents were born in the United States, would be considered a second-generation Italian American.

References

  1. ^ a b "Helen Barolini Papers". Harvard University. Archived from the original on 2018-04-03. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Helen Barolini Papers". Syracuse University.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9781135583330
    .
  4. ^ a b c d Barolini, Helen (1998). "How I Learned to Speak Italian". In Ozick, Cynthia (ed.). Best American Essays 1998.
  5. ISBN 9780810319936
    .
  6. ^ a b "Albo d'oro". premioacerbi.com.
  7. ^ Barolini (1985), The Dream Book, back cover.
  8. ISBN 9780815303800
    .
  9. ISBN 9780618043705
    .
  10. ^ Williams, Alex (April 20, 2023). "Helen Barolini, Chronicler of Italian American Women, Dies at 97". The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  11. ^ "Helen Barolini". Helen Barolini. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  12. ^ "Our Story". Hudson Valley Writers' Center. Archived from the original on 2018-03-20. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
  13. ^ "USA's Eugene Walter Writers Festival Recognizes Top Writers". University of South Alabama.
  14. ^ "Annual Luncheon". Italian Welfare League. Archived from the original on October 1, 2017.
  15. ^ "2003 Book Club Selections". OSIA.
  16. ^ "Awards". MELUS.
  17. ISBN 9780618043705
    .

Further reading

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Helen_Barolini&oldid=1217343665"