Fernanda Pivano (1917 – 2009) – Italian writer, journalist, translator and critic – was born in Genoa, but soon moved to Turin where she studied at the Massimo D’Azeglio Lyceum. She took a degree (laurea) in English language and literature with a thesis (tesi) on Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. In 1943 published her first translation, Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters for Einaudi and received a degree in philosophy. In 1948, F. Pivano met Ernest Hemingway with whom had an intense professional and personal relationship (relazione) – she translated A Farewell to Arms. Fernanda Pivano contributed to the diffusion of the most significant American writers in Italy. Generations of writers owe (devono) their Italian fame to her translations and criticism. From F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker and William Faulkner, to the Beat Generation of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and the most recent works by Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis, David Foster Wallace, Chuck Palahniuk and Jonathan Safran Foers – she spread (divulgò) American culture in Italy. Her interests were also addressed to (indirizzati) Afro-American writers like Richard Wright and to the popular music of Fabrizio De André and Bob Dylan.