The Nobel and Back Again

Abstract

This article re-evaluates the translation strategy of the Italian publisher Mondadori for Pearl S. Buck. From the first translations in the book series Medusa to the latest editions of the 2010s, the publisher’s literary assessment and marketing strategy for Buck’s oeuvre fluctuated towards and away the standing of a Nobel Prize laurate. By collecting and analysing a variety of records from the publisher’s archive at Fondazione Arnoldo and Alberto Mondadori (Milan, Italy) and the Deutsches Literaturarchiv (Marbach, Germany), this contribution challenges pre-existing narratives concerning this author’s Italian publication history. By identifying four phases in Mondadori’s programme for Pearl S. Buck, it argues that a rebranding that intentionally moved her public image away from the unwieldy shadow of the Nobel ultimately prolonged Buck’s success in the Italian language throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.