Riccardo Marchi

Riccardo Marchi (1897–1992) is truly a forgotten character in the Italian literary scene, in internet you find very little about him. Yet Riccardo Marchi has been compared by critics to Tozzi, Verga and Capuana, for the realism of the description and for his being a student of the folklore and traditions of Livorno.

Telegraphist in the First World War, he successfully managed his father’s soap factory, simultaneously pursuing the activity of journalist, writer and political activist. In 1921 he participated in the socialist conference which saw the birth of the communist party.

In addition to the verses and numerous novels, many of which are reminiscent and generally autobiographical, he also achieved a good success over the air as an author of radio plays and radio fairy tales. Together with Corrado Alvaro, he became a member of an authoritative commission of E.I.A.R. After the Second World War he devoted himself to news and film criticism for “IL Telegrafo” and “Il Tirreno”.

At the end of the sixties he retired to private life in Livorno, dedicating himself exclusively to writing. He died in 1992.

His best known novels are: “Equestrian Circus”, “Lo sperduto di Lugh” but, above all, “Via Eugenia, 1900”, where he recalls the life of his family, the soap factory, the figure of Uncle Tide, gentleman from another time.

“A gentleman! Go look for him nowadays. Was it Uncle Tide? He certainly was.

The speech necessarily brings me back to the memory of him, of Uncle Tide, short for Aristide, my mother’s brother, a gentlemanship that is not free or cheap, even paid dearly.

What was he like in the physical? Handsome, with a brown face as if carved on the bark of an old tree. Seemingly grumpy; in reality good-natured, revealed by an infrequent smile that, lightening him, animated him along with his eyes, also the ruffled bushes of the whiskers and the mustache in the style of the 48.”

Marchi had “the stroke of the engraver”, as stated in the preface by the publisher Nuova Fortezza, and he knew how to render the streets of Livorno with animated liveliness:

“And what was the path of childhood like?

Just like today, more dignified, more Eugenia, by a civic magistrate Eugene. Then, despite the soap factory and the foundry at the end of that stretch of road, despite some manure and two or three artisan shops and a modest canova shop, in the sixteen buildings that compose it, including two main buildings, via Eugenia housed with noble dignity employees, craftsmen and free entrepreneurs like us.

Now it is unkempt, decayed, with the walls peeling and full of weeds, pockmarked by wars; but in the time of Uncle Tide, how it fluttered! Of clothes in the sun, of voices attesting a warm vitality; even of wealth.

The singing of the street vendors livened it up from dawn to dusk: the herbaria, the clams seller, the fishmonger, the chicken seller, the umbrella maker, the knife grinder, the coppersmith of Prato, a cenciaio and so on. Polyphony to which, to tickle the good heart, the rigmaroles of the accordions joined. To these Tide gave alms of a penny as long as they went elsewhere to annoy people with “The virgin of the angels” or “La donna è mobile”. Maybe they would come back with the new repertoire and the tuned instrument.”

Via Eugenia 1900 is a window on our past, on Livorno just out of the Risorgimento. We are reminded of the hidden corner of the Lupi cemetery with the cracked, wild-faced Garibaldi tombs, and it is spontaneous to associate them — and compare them — with certain Marchi’s descriptions.

“Ah, vigorous times, beautiful and fierce! I still remember them for the parades, rites of the people who fed on them, like bread. The funeral of the Garibaldi soldiers in which I attended held by the hand of my uncle. Great display of flags and red shirts; crowd of severe men in black, like uncle: all of them with a patch of acacia in their buttonhole."