The Wanderings of a Provincial Cosmopolite

Salvatore Maraffa Abate was a journalist, a poet, an entrepreneur, a publicist and sometime publisher. With a life that spanned a century of momentous Italian history, and armed with an aristocratic pedigree, he managed to survive and adapt to different situations and political settings: from his early carefree years in the elegant Palermo of the Belle Époque, through two world wars, fascism and, finally, republican Italy. Here, Frau focuses on Maraffa's compelling and controversial life story in order to revive his intellectual figure and place it in the context of twentieth century Italian cultural history. She explores Maraffa's personal relationship with fascism and with his fascist past in the larger scenario of Italy's own association with the Ventennio and its immediate aftermath. Additionally, she retraces Maraffa's periodic attempts to re-invent himself and to adapt to different cultural and political situations, from sophisticated and ironic chronicler of the Sicilian and European beau monde, to political journalist, to fascist propagandist, to Badoglio supporter, to Salò enthusiast, to unobtrusive travel reporter.