WTI Magazine #55    2015 March, 6
Author : Giovanni Verde      Translation by:

The first Italian woman to have founded and edited a newspaper was born in Patras on March 7, 1856 to the Neapolitan lawyer Francesco Serao, who in 1848 left his city because sought as anti-Bourbon, and Pauline Borely, a Greek decayed noble. When the father returns to Naples in 1861, he starts working in a newspaper, "Il Pungolo" (The Sting).

Despite the stimuli arising from her father's work, Matilde cannot learn to read and write before eight years old. She enrolls without qualification, as a simple auditor, to the Pimentel Fonseca School of Naples, but in little time she succeeds to get the diploma of teacher and begins the work of journalist writing small articles for "Il Giornale di Napoli".

In 1882, at age 26, she travels to Rome, where she begins to work on writing in a more constant way, collaborating with the magazine "Capitan Fracassa". During this period the relationship with her father gets more intense. Matilde will long remember the Roman moments spent with "Capitan Fracassa" editorial staff and the evenings with her father and the editors.

These also are the years of the publication of the novel that will make her famous, "Fantasia" (Fantasy). Matilde is harshly criticized by the great poet and writer Edoardo Scarfoglio, that deems her as "an inorganic matter, such as a soup made of all the leftovers of a copious banquet". But as the Italian proverb says, "Chi disprezza, compra" (He who despises, than buys): shortly thereafter, the woman becomes his wife.

Matilde and Edoardo get married on February 28, 1885. Their marriage is described on "La Tribuna" by Gabriele D'Annunzio. The relationship between Edoardo and Matilde is not only sentimental, but also deeply professional. In 1885, Edoardo and Matilde establish "Il Corriere di Roma". Matilde writes for the newspaper and invites her friends to do the same, relying on the relationships previously cultivated in Rome. But the newspaper is not a big success, not nearly popular as its direct competitor "La Tribuna".

The bad financial situation forces the couple to return to Naples. There they meet with a banker from Livorno, Matteo Schilizzi, and thanks to him they can continue to work in the world of journalism, for the "Corriere di Roma", which merges with "Il Corriere del Mattino" and becomes "Il Corriere di Napoli".

Matilde and Edoardo decide in 1891 to leave the newspaper and to found a new one, "Il Mattino" (which is nowadays the most important Neapolitan newspaper), whose first issue is published on March 16, 1892.

1892 is also the year of the end of their love story. Edoardo meets another woman, Gabrielle Bressard, from which he has a son. Still, he chooses not to leave Matilda and Gabrielle blatantly decides to commit suicide right in front of his door. The newspapers will cover the news, but Schilizzi, the old publisher, decides to publish all in August. The daughter of Edoardo and Gabrielle is then entrusted to Matilda, who anyway decides to leave her husband forever.

The end of the story between Edoardo and Matilda also leads to her resignation from the newspaper that she had helped to found, due to allegations of corruption, later proved totally unfounded. In the meantime, Matilde meets another journalist, Giuseppe Natale, who will become her second husband, after Edoardo Scarfoglio's death. Matilde Serao will relentlessy continue her work as a writer and a journalist, until her death due to a heart attack, in Naples, on July 25 of 1927.

The story of Matilde Serao is the adventure of a tenacious woman, who did not let the events of her life to overwhelm her, but tried to describe the world through the use of a never dull style of writing.