Ada Negri

Ada Negri was an Italian poet, writer and teacher who made poetry an instrument of social battle. She was also the first and only woman to be admitted to the Accademia d'Italia.

Ada Negri was born in Lodi on February 3, 1870 into a family of humble origins. Orphaned by her father at the age of one, she spent her childhood and adolescence in the Barni palace, where her grandmother carried out duties as a porter, observing the walk of people and fantasizing in the flower beds of the main garden.

When the too old grandmother has to leave her job, Ada retreats with her mother to two rooms in the attic. Of these years, Ada will leave precious testimony in "Stella Mattutina" (1921), where she will talk about maternal sacrifices, the formation of an awareness of an evident social injustice, of her training mostly as a self-taught person, also inspired by the readings of appendix novels that her mother did in the evening for her grandmother.

Enrolled in the "Normal Female School", she stands out for her extraordinary learning ability. In 1887, having obtained her diploma, she began working as an elementary teacher, first in the girls' boarding school in Codogno and then in the elementary school in Motta Visconti, where she spent the period that she will remember as the happiest of her life.

In addition to teaching, she dedicates herself to writing poetry, which she manages to get published in some magazines, obtaining the first enthusiastic recognition from intellectuals such as Raffaello Barbiera, director of "Illustrazione popolare", and Sofia Bisi Albini, a journalist for the Corriere della Sera, who went to Motta Visconti to meet and interview her. In 1892 Treves published "Fatality" the first poetry collection by Ada Negri, which was an unexpected success with the public and critics.

By ministerial decree, Negri was appointed professor at the Gaetana Agnesi normal school in Milan. After moving to the Lombard capital with her mother, she comes into contact with members of the Italian Socialist Party, such as Filippo Turati, Benito Mussolini and Anna Kuliscioff.

She also meets Ettore Patrizi, a young intellectual with whom she gets engaged. Around the figure of Ada Negri in recent years hovers the myth of the poetess and teacher of humble origins who denounces the misery and exploitation of the humble and oppressed with cries of anger and pain.

However, she receives the news that Paolo Buzzi (1874-1956), the Milanese poet particularly attentive to literary novelties, will write a review of the volume. Over the years an intense friendship will develop between the two. With this letter, she thanks him sincerely: «da casa 6 di febbraio [18]96
Grazie delle buone, sincere parole.
Così pochi così pochi sono stati quelli che hanno detto spassionatamente il vero sulle mie Tempeste, così nella lode come nella critica ch’io sarò lietissima di leggere ciò che lei scriverà o ha già scritto su di me. Con somma stima e gratitudine.
Ada Negri»

In those years, marked on a personal level by a growing misunderstanding with her husband, Negri forged a dense network of friendships with the exponents of the Milanese philanthropic and associations network, represented by institutions such as the Humanitarian Society, the Popular University, the Women's union.

In 1921 Ada Negri published "Stella Mattutina", an autobiographical work where she recalls the period of her childhood and youth, where the themes of social denunciation typical of all her first production return, accompanied by feelings of lyricism, love and from gratitude towards the mother.

The volume gains public recognition from Benito Mussolini, for which the author was very grateful, considering it one of her greatest achievements.
From 1926 she began to collaborate with Il "Corriere della Sera", then directed by Ugo Ojetti, consolidating her image as an intellectual loyal to the regime: in 1931 she was awarded the "Mussolini Award" for her career and in 1940 she was the first woman to be Academy of Italy.