Widow of Italian Jewish Artist Denies She Is Mysterious Author Elena Ferrante
Image by YouTube
The widow of a Jewish artist and doctor has denied reports that she is a mysterious Italian author who writes under the pen name Elena Ferrante.
Italian novelist and professor, Marco Santagata suggested that ‘Ferrante’ could be Marcella Marmo in a lengthy article published over the weekend in the literary supplement of the daily Corriere della Sera.
Santagata wrote that Ferrante – the author of the wildly popular Neapolitan novels that trace the friendship of two women – could be Marcella Marmo, a 69-year-old university professor in Naples. He based his guess on a close analysis of Ferrante’s books, as well as on Marmo’s biography, which bears some similarities to that of one of Ferrante’s protagonists.
Ferrante has kept her identity secret since she began publishing more than two decades ago. Marmo – who, along with her publisher, denied that she is Ferrante – was married for decades to Guido Sacerdoti, a physician, artist and political activist who also was a well known figure in the tiny Naples Jewish community and worked to promote Holocaust education.
Sacerdoti, who died in 2013, was the first Jewish child born in Naples after World War II. In a biographical note, Marmo wrote that Sacerdoti’s bris was performed by a rabbi based on a ship in the Allied fleet anchored in the Gulf of Naples. Sacerdoti was the nephew of the noted anti-fascist painter and writer Carlo Levi, and in his later years was president of a foundation dedicated to Levi’s memory and the promotion of his works.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
