A Small Collection of Correspondence Regarding Translating Robert Penn Warren's Poems into Italian

Four brief Typed Letters Signed from Robert Penn Warren to translator Dora M. Pettinella. Also included are copies of three letters from Pettinella to the poet and one letter from her to the son of Luigi Berti, translator and editor of the Italian magazine *Inventario*. Old folds, most with staple holes in the corner, a tiny bit of oxidation from an old paper clip and waviness, near fine. An interesting collection of correspondence between Robert Penn Warren and Dora M. Petinella, who in the first letter introduces herself as a translator of Conrad Aiken, Charles Angoff, Joseph Auslander, Randall Jarrell, and "many others too numerous to mention." Warren kindly agrees to let her translate his work and sends her two volumes of his poetry. During the course of the correspondence, they discuss Italian editor Luigi Berti, who had began translating some of Warren's poems but died suddenly; Warren writes "It is a very sad thing about Luigi. He drove himself hard, over the years. With a lot of gallantry." (The one facsimile letter in Italian is from Petinella to Berti's son, asking for information about his late father's project.) Two letters of Warren's regard receiving translated poems, and later an Italian magazine featuring his work. He is complimentary of the translations, describing them as "faithful and, within the limits of my Italian, effective." Interestingly, he does "tentatively" offer a suggested replacement for "Canto de Gallo": "something like 'grido' in 'Ninna Nanna.' Some sense of cry, shout, blast, alarum [sic], etc." A modest but interesting collection of correspondence on the process of translating Warren's work into Italian.…