An Italian writer, a successful, prolific screen player from Hollywood: their letters, collected at the Como Public Library sketch a vivid picture of the intellectual atmosphere of the Fifties
By Primavera Fisogni
Carla Porta Musa (1902-2012) was an Italian writer, poet, essayist, and journalist from Como, whose leading role in 20th Century literature has recently been recognized. What makes her literary biography highly relevant to Italian literature, is the international touch of her works and relationships. For the readers of Rekh Magazine I wish to make the memory of the friendship between Carla and Anita Loos (1888-1981) by referring to original documents donated by Porta Musa to the Como Public Library in 1988.
One of Hollywood's most respected screenwriters, author of hundreds of scripts for generations of actors, as well as an acclaimed novelist and playwright, Loos authored Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925).
The title immediately recalls the American musical comedy directed by Howard Hawks that was also a successful musical on Broadway’s stage (1949).
Worth noting that the relationship between these excellent writers has only been recently unveiled by the dissertation of Gina La Rovere (2010), who investigated the archive of documents donated by Carla Porta Musa to Como Public Library in the Eighties and found the letters to Anita Loos. In my book Giovane è la parola. Biografia letteraria di Carla Porta Musa (Carocci, 2022), I could examine and partially publish the letters. Far from being a vivid picture of friendship, this collection focuses on the literary American milieu in the late Fifties of the 20th Century.
Carla and Anita met in Montecatini, Tuscany, at La Pace Grand Hotel, where they both used to spend their summer holidays. It was Mr Alfredo Pizzoni (1894-1958), a leading Italian banker and a politician, educated at Oxford, to introduce Carla to Anita, as it can be understood from the letters the women exchanged for a couple of years (only Anita’s are available). They shared a common interest in literature, Tuscany, and the Italian classical heritage. In 1955 Carla became famous in Italy for joining Mondadori Publisher as the author of Virginia 1880, her debut novel.
The success of the book made Carla aware of the possibility to present her work to some selected publishers abroad: being translated in English would be a main step forward her acknowledgment as an international novelist.
At the beginning of 1956, Anita writes to Carla saying that she was thinking about “what to do with ‘Virginia’ ” (January 22). She thought she might turn it over to a good agent: Mr. Carlton Cole, who she knew as extremely honest and reliable so she was quite sure that “he will more than earn his fee for getting more money for ‘Virginia’…”.
Carlton (1901-1959) was a very well-reputed agent in Hollywood, married to Rosalind Paige Cole (1926-1988), who represented so many authors, actors, and celebrities, including Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Charlie Chaplin, and Andy Warhol.
Immediately Anita does her best in the Us literary environment. She took the liberty of going ahead and giving Carlton Cole a sample translation of the novel made by Carla herself. The excellent English – Carla was educated in London, France, and Switzerland – impressed the agent.
“I’ve spoken to him – writes Anita – about it already and he is tremendously interested” (January 22).
In the meanwhile, Anita contacts Mr. Henry Sell, the editor-in-chief of Town and Country and the editor who first published Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. He is a friend, of course; however he had a clear insight into the quality of Carla’s work very soon. In brief, Mr. Sell was ready to offer Carla “the standard rate for works of fiction by writers who are unknown in the US”. So, Loos became confident of the successful end of the project (“he will be as lucky for you as he was for me”). A sensitive story of a high society woman in the last decades of the 19th Century, a diary, which is also a portrait of those times, Virginia 1880 was fascinating Anita since the reading of the first chapter in English (August 11, 1956). In Paris, Loos was fully immersed in Carla’s pages. Her congrats on style, characterizations, and mood sound sincere. She writes:
“But now that I have been able to enjoy those first pages in English, I can express the greatest admiration and interest in the charm and freshness of your book. It is truly incredible as a first work”.
Carla feels probably motivated to keep on translating. We realize, from a letter of Anita dated October 10th, 1956 that the novel was fully turned into English:
“I have read your novel on the boat and do most sincerely congratulate (…) The characters come to life so vividly. It is exactly as if one were living with them (…)”.
In August 1956 Carla and Anita met again in Montecatini. They made some thermal treatments and filled their days with short trips to Florence or friendly conversation with “our dear Pisani” (August 11st 1956), the medical doctor who cured celebrities, among whom the writer Giovanni Papini. Carla became very soon a confidant of Ms. Loos, an inspirational woman for her, not simply a friend. In an interview released in 2007 to Stefano Lorenzetto, Ms. Porta Musa reminded that Loos was used to writing by night1 and two hundred of her scripts were brought to light in the darkness… Furthermore, Carla was fond of Colette’s style of writing and Anita was acquainted with the French novelist (1873-1954), of whom she adapted the short story, Gigi, for the cinema, and starred Audrey Hepburn in the title role (1951).
Fall 1956 came with good news from the US. Anita couldn’t wait to say to Carla that Henry Sell “has read a few pages of Virginia and likes it” so she sent a telegram to the common friend Pizzoni. The increasing enthusiasm for the project was cooled by some comments from agent Carlton Cole, written to both Anita and Carla. What was wrong with Virginia 1880? Nothing, to be honest, criticism is not about the style. It is the type of story – noted Cole -, very unusual to Americans.
It might take a long time to find just the right producer or publisher. Although Carlton has not really neglected Virginia, Anita felt deeply disappointed, because Carlton was a friend, and probably she expected a better reception (August 13, 1957). Worth noting that Anita, in the letter dated October 10th, 1956, was finely aware of the difficulties of the American book market: “in the US is now to find the proper place to take it”. The very rejection of Carla’s novel came from Ms. Ray Pierre (Marquessa) Corsini (1911-2006), associated editor at McGraw Hill Company, friend and confidante of Anita herself. Nee Einstein, was Italian for a half, and as the wife of a noble husband from the Corsini family, Ray Pierre was contacted by Carlton. Her sharp comment close definitely the chance, for Ms. Porta Musa, to be read by the Americans.
“Though it is well written, it is a little too rambling and diffuse in form. The diary is a difficult medium for a novel at best”.
The letters sent from Anita Loos to Carla Porta Musa witness a warm friendship between a leading author and a promising novelist. We also grasp some flashes about the cultural world in the US in the late Fifties: 1) the need, for an author, to be represented by a good literary agent for finding the proper place in the book market; 2) the interest in Italian contemporary literature; 3) the preference for fiction stories more than historical plots, in form of a diary; 4) the evaluation was made for both publishing and producing on stage. Nevertheless, the letters to Carla might be valuable pieces for sketching the complex biographical puzzle of Anita Loos, whose extraordinary life has been recently rediscovered in the US.
