Beneath the Decade of Translation

Abstract The article investigates the circulation of American novels in English during Fascism, focusing on the Tauchnitz Collection of British and American Authors. It highlights the role of these editions for Italian intellectuals and outlines the characteristics of their typical readers, showing how the Tauchnitz books circulated beyond elite circles to a broader audience. Moreover, it examines the distribution channels that enabled books to travel from Germany to Italy, with a focus on Isacco Krachmalnicoff, one of the Jewish distributors of the series in the 1930s. This article argues that, while Krachmalnicoff was a secondary cultural actor and the circulation of Tauchnitz Editions represented a negligible cultural phenomenon, it was precisely this marginality that allowed for the circulation of at least one influential book banned under the regime—Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.