Baldini & Castoldi

Baldini Castoldi Dalai Editore is an Italian publishing house, founded in 1897 and located under the arcades of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan.[1][2][3] Baldini & Castoldi changed its name to Dalai Editore in 2011, and "Baldini & Castoldi" became a series of Dalai Editore. The company has published several successful authors.

History

Founder members were Ettore Baldini, Antenore Castoldi, Alceste Borella and the poet Gian Pietro Lucini, who had acquired the small publishing house Galli and Omodei and then renamed it as Baldini & Castoldi.[1][4] At his foundation, it had a registered capital of 60,000 lire.[5] Among the first successful authors there were Antonio Fogazzaro, Gerolamo Rovetta, Neera (Anna Zuccari), Salvator Gotta and Guido da Verona;[1] particularly da Verona was the most commercially successful Italian writer between 1914 and 1939.[6]

Timeline
Baldini & Castoldi stand, 2016 Turin International Book Fair

In 1940 the management was renewed with the arrival of Enrico Castoldi that opened more to the presence in the catalog of foreign authors (especially Hungarian),[1][4] but begin a descent of sales that took it to suspend its activities in 1970.[1][7]

In 1991 the publishing house was taken by Alessandro Dalai (that bought the shares owned by the publishing group Elemond)[7] and Oreste del Buono.[1][2] The house was so raised offering numerous book series focused on fiction, nonfiction, history, economy, humor and satire (with the series Le formiche).[7] An important part of their publications was reserved to debuts and emerging writers.[8] A key role in the revitalization of the brand was given by the success of the humorous books by Gino and Michele and then by Va dove ti porta il cuore, a novel written by Susanna Tamaro which became in a short time an international bestseller.[9][10][11] According to a 1997 report, made on the occasion of the centenary of "Baldini e Castoldi", after the Dalai's relaunch the house had 25 employees, an income between 35 and 40 billion lire a year and published about 150 books a year.[12]

In July 2000, Dalai completed the acquisition of the house pointing out the shares owned by the Mondadori Group (since 1994), adding his name to the brand of the publisher.[7]

In 2011 the company changed its name to Dalai Editore and "Baldini & Castoldi" became a series of Dalai Editore. Dalai Editore closed down in 2013. The name "Baldini&Castoldi" still lives on thanks to the effort of a new publishing house, simply named "Baldini&Castoldi".

Today, Baldini&Castoldi is one of the most important Italian independent publishers.[1]

Published authors

Some of the publisher's most successful authors are Enrico Brizzi, Giorgio Faletti, Fabio Geda, Gianluca Arrighi, Antonio Pennacchi, Aldo Busi[1] and, since 1993, Paolo Mereghetti with his Dictionary of the film.[1]

See also
  • List of Italian companies

References
  1. Paolo Di Stefano. Potresti anche dirmi grazie: Gli scrittori raccontati dagli editori. Rizzoli. ISBN 8858600592.
  2. Luciano Genta (19 October 1991). "Dalai: così rifaccio la Baldini & Castoldi". La Stampa. p. 7.
  3. Simone Mosca (5 February 2013). "Un quadro e cento libri per ricordare Baldini". La Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  4. Ada Gigli Marchetti. Stampa e piccola editoria tra le due guerre. F. Angeli, 1997. ISBN 9788846403476.
  5. La fabbrica del libro, Issue 2, Arte tipografica, 1996.
  6. Raffaele De Berti. Dallo schermo alla carta. Vita e Pensiero, 2000. ISBN 8834306368.
  7. Istituto Enciclopedia Italiana. Enciclopedia Treccani Tre Volumi. Ist. Enciclopedia Italiana, 2009.
  8. "Baldini & Castoldi, nuovi talenti addio (forse resta la Tamaro)", La Stampa, 4 December 1999, p.11.
  9. Francesca Archinto, Anna Abbà. Quo vadis libro?: interviste sull'editoria italiana in tempo di crisi. EDUCatt, 2009. ISBN 8883116801.
  10. Lietta Tornabuoni (8 June 1995). "Dalai, Il cacciatore di bestsellers". La Stampa. p. 15.
  11. Dino Messina (10 April 1995). "Il mio regno per una formica". Corriere della Sera. p. 31. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  12. Claudio Altarocca, "Baldini & Castoldi, cent'anni", La Stampa, 4 December 1997, p.1.

Further reading
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